Mother and girlfriend of dead servicman feud over his remains

PORTLAND (AP) — A battle over custody of the remains of an Iraq veteran who died after a bar disturbance in Texas has boiled down to claims of love, greed and the freewheeling common-law marriage laws of the Lone Star State.

Shawn Michael Freese, 28, was working as a bouncer in a bar popular with University of Texas students near Austin on Jan. 14 when he died after a fracas.

The bar employee he lived with for 18 months, Kimberli Uranga, and with whom he has an infant daughter, is claiming Freese’s body and wants him buried in Texas. She is claiming rights as a common-law wife and says he wanted a Texas burial.

Shawn’s mother, Cheryl Freese, who lives in the Portland suburb of Beaverton, wants his body sent to Oregon. She contends common law does not apply in the case, and that Uranga has designs on her son’s Social Security and veterans’ benefits.

“They’re holding my son hostage in this common-law marriage thing,” Cheryl Freese said Wednesday, claiming Uranga’s motive is “greed.”

Uranga, who lived with Freese in the Austin suburb of Lampasas, said Wednesday she had tried to talk Shawn into returning to Oregon to be near his older daughter but he refused.

“I was ready to pick up and go, I didn’t care,” she said in a phone interview with The Associated Press from Texas.

She told kgw.com: “All I want to do is lay Shawn to rest in a place he loved to be, where he wanted to be.”

Meanwhile, Shawn Freese’s remains are being held by restraining order at an Austin-area funeral home.

Oregon does not recognize common-law marriage, but about 15 states do.

Texas requires only that a couple consider themselves married, present themselves to others as husband and wife or file a joint tax return and live together in Texas.

A Feb. 9 hearing is set to determine if Freese and Uranga had fulfilled the requirements for what Texas calls “informal marriage,” which could decide the custody issue.

Cheryl Freese said a Dallas attorney told her common-law rights apply to property but not to custody of a body, and that she plans to seek formal legal counsel.

Freese said she was going to travel to Austin and sit outside the funeral home until her son’s body is released.

“I want to bring my son home. He’s an Oregonian,” she told the News Register newspaper of McMinnville, which first reported the dispute.

Kimberli’s mother, Rammie Moore, told The AP that Shawn and her daughter had discussed the dangerous nature of his job as a bouncer and decided they wanted to be buried in Texas if anything happened.

Regarding Social Security benefits, Moore said all her daughter wants “is what’s right for her baby,” and for Shawn’s other daughter, 8, from a previous marriage.

“They say it’s about greed but Kim isn’t like that. Her heart’s broke,” she said.

Rammie Moore said they had proposed holding a memorial service in Texas with Shawn’s body present and then sending it back to Oregon and that his mother would have been welcome.

Cheryl Freese said she refused to permit her son’s remains to leave the funeral home since the case was still in legal limbo and she suspected a trick.

A memorial without the body was held, and Moore said Shawn’s mother was not welcome.

How Freese died is unclear, but police believe it was related to a fight at the bar where he worked. Texas authorities are investigating it as a possible homicide.