Stranger hit dead man at funeral with wand

Tammy Fausel said that she and her family were shocked at what happened during her uncle's funeral in Gray Court. A Candler, N.C., woman danced in front of the service, waved a wand around the casket, opened the lid, laid her hands on the deceased's head and struck the body with a wand.

Nicole Marie Loretta Leonard, 25, has been charged with disturbing a funeral and public disorderly conduct in Tuesday's incident.

Fausel said she had never before seen the woman and had no idea why she would've been at funeral at Church of God on State 14. "Everybody was just kind of flabbergasted," she said. "They didn't know what was going on."



The woman took flowers from the top of the casket and threw them at the family before leaving in a burgundy Toyota, according to the report. Fausel said she called the Sheriff's Office.

A lieutenant intercepted a burgundy Toyota Corolla heading south on Interstate 385. When deputies asked the woman why she acted the way she did, the woman said "she felt that it was the right thing to do at the time." The woman told deputies she knew no one at the church.

Leonard, of 117 Davis Creek, was released from the Johnson Detention Center on Wednesday, according to jail officials and tickets.