This is truly the nightmare that never ends for the Kasem family.
Six months after his death, American radio legend Casey Kasem was laid to rest in Norway last Month. Why Norway? NO ONE REALLY KNOWS.
Casey was buried last week at the “Vestre Gravlund,” a large cemetery in the country, without the consultation of his children. Jean Kasem, Casey’s wife – does not have to tell them since she is the conservator over his remains.
Casey’s delayed burial brings back to light a long and bitter family saga between the iconic American Top 40 host’s three children and their stepmother Jean Kasem.
Kasem died at 82 on Father’s Day this past June, after being hospitalized for an infected bedsore. In the months leading up to his death, Kasem suffered from Lewy body dementia and was bedridden. The internal family feud started after Casey’s kids claimed that Jean – whom the radio icon had married in 1980 – had prevented them from seeing their ailing father.
Norway is the end of a more than 7,900-mile odyssey that began in May, when Jean Kasem took the ailing Casey Kasem from a Santa Monica hospital to Las Vegas and then to Washington State, where a private investigator for Kasem’s daughter Kerri Kasem tracked them down.
Kerri then told CNN that Casey’s body was missing. Kerri’s publicist claimed at the time that Jean Kasem had removed her husband’s body from the funeral home in Washington state and then despite a judge’s restraining order in July, Jean Kasem moved her husband’s remains to Montreal.
The children want charges brought against Jean for Elder Abuse for her treatment of Kasem but the latest development in the Kasem story complicates any legal case the children have against Jean involving his treatment. There are jurisdictional issues with regard to where incidents occurred relative to any elder abuse claims.
Kerri recently told reporters:
“As far as Norway, we don’t know what their rules and regulations are… I don’t think we need to exhume the body, we have so much evidence – video, photos, witnesses – and the police have collected so much evidence”
Kerri Kasem’s brother, Mike Kasem recently reinforced the idea that Jean buried Kasem in Norway to hide evidence of her alleged abuse:
“There is no connection my dad has with Norway, I don’t know if Jean has any ties to Oslo. She certainly has never mentioned it in the last 35 years. Check the exhumation laws there; sounds like a possibility that is the reason she will bury him there. My dad deserves to be buried where he specifically asked to be buried: [California].”