Funeral home worker castrates corpse of sex offender, shoves it in his mouth

HOUSTON, TX - Some will probably see this story and have mixed feelings about whether the suspect in the following case should face criminal charges. We’ll let you decide. 

According to The New York Post, Amber Laudermilk, 34, is accused of using a scalpel to castrate a man at a Texas funeral home after learning he was a registered sex offender, police said. Laudermilk, who worked as an embalmer at the facility, cut off the penis of 58-year-old Charles Ray Rodriguez and stuffed it in his mouth while overseeing his body at the Memorial Mortuary and Crematory in Houston last month. 

Police said that before castrating him, she stabbed him twice. They also said Laudermilk carried out the act in front of an embalming student. 

“You didn’t see anything,” she allegedly told the student after mutilating the corpse. 

When another employee questioned Laudermilk about Rodriguez’s “disfigured” groin, she replied he had “a lot going on with him,” charging documents said. Rodriguez had passed away of natural causes at a Houston hospital in January, police said. 

Rodriguez was placed on the Texas Department of Public Safety’s sex offender registry after being convicted of sexually assaulting a 31-year-old woman in 2001 and given 10 years probation. Police said they don’t know how Laudermilk learned of his listing on the sex offender list. 

“This case is about two troubled people: the victim, who was a registered sex offender, and the defendant, who is accused of viciously attacking the dead body,” Harris County Constable Alan Rosen said. 

“No matter what one thinks of his life, the law requires that he be treated with dignity in death.

“I don’t know the suspect’s past, but we have the utmost empathy for anyone who has been the victim of a sexual assault or is the family or friend of someone who has been the victim of a sexual assault,” Rosen continued. 

“The facts clearly indicate she was angry, and I hope that after this is resolved in the courts, she gets the help she [Laudermilk] needs.” 

Laudermilk is accused of abuse of a corpse after the funeral home reported the alleged castration to authorities. 

The Houston Chronicle reported that Laudermilk’s embalmer’s license was suspended after the incident. ABC 13 in Houston also reported that she was fired from her position.