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Deseret News
Barbara Mahaffey in an undated photograph

A Utah man said police interrupted a private moment of mourning with his just-deceased wife of 58 years when they searched his house for her prescription medication without a warrant, within 10 minutes of her death.

Ben D. Mahaffey, 80, said he was distraught and trying to make sure the body of his wife, Barbara Alice Mahaffey, would be taken to the funeral home with dignity, reports Dennis Romboy at Deseret News. Instead, police officers insisted that he help them “look for the drugs.”
“I was holding her hand saying goodbye when all the intrusion happened,” Mahaffey said.
Barbara died at 12:35 a.m., with Mahaffey, a Korean War veteran, and his friend, an EMT, at her side. Police, a mortician and a hospice worker arrived at the home about 12:45 a.m., Mahaffey said; he didn’t know how police came to be there.