Updated 11:16 AM ET September 6, 2006
An Amtrak passenger traveling with her ailing father waited nearly 23 hours and about 1,000 miles to tell authorities he had died so she could avoid the cost of shipping the body home, police said.
The train had reached Chicago when Daniel Stepanovich's daughter told officials that he had died in a sleeper car on Sunday evening, about the time the train was pulling into Glenwood Springs, Colo., said Chicago Police spokeswoman Jo Ann Taylor.
The woman told police she couldn't afford to ship his body home. She said Stepanovich, 80, suffered from lung and brain cancer.
Stepanovich was pronounced dead of natural causes on Tuesday, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office. He had lived in Hammond, Ind. His daughter, who was not identified, lives in the Chicago suburb of Grayslake.
Officials were not sure when the two boarded the the California Zephyr, which travels from Emeryville, Calif., to Chicago.
Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said he couldn't recall a situation in which a passenger's death went unreported for so long.
I bought this passenger an hour ago and you assured me that his lack of activity was caused by his pining for the fjords!
He's resting.
Now, then. I took the liberty of examinin' this fellow and found that the only reason he hadn't fallen over was that he'd been nailed there!
Handsome, Isn't he?
That's not the point! This fellow is no more! He has ceased to be!...
Bring out your dead! (Clank!) Bring out your dead! (clank!) Bring out your dead! (clank!)
Just try doing that on an Amtrak train near you. I can't bail you out if you try this, sorry.