Texas woman charged with throwing boyfriend’s mother’s ashes into lake in 2020

FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas woman has been charged with abuse of a corpse for a 2020 incident in which she allegedly threw the ashes of her boyfriend’s late mother into a lake.

Augustine Gladney, 40, of Fort Worth, was arrested last month after she reportedly admitted her actions to her boyfriend, Ernest Smith, NBC Dallas-Fort Worth reported.

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Smith, 38, told police back in June 2020 that he returned home one night to find that the urn containing his mother’s cremated remains was missing. According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Smith told investigators he and Gladney were dating at the time but were not on good terms.

Fast forward to May 2022, when Smith told authorities he overheard a phone conversation between Gladney and her daughter, who was at their home at the time, the NBC affiliate reported. In that phone call, Gladney allegedly told her daughter she had thrown the urn full of ashes into Lake Worth, a reservoir and recreation area in the city.

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Smith told police he was unable to reach Gladney until nearly midnight Monday night. It was apparently around that time that she texted him, admitting that she had thrown his mother’s ashes into the water, NBC Dallas-Fort Worth reported.

The alleged crime made headlines in May but appears to have resurfaces after a TikTok video went viral on social media. The video, captioned, “He cheated so I threw his mom ashes in river,” shows a woman dumping an urnful of ashes off the side of a bridge.

Several people have stated that the woman in the video is Gladney, but other social media users have identified the woman as a comedian performing a skit. BET reported that law enforcement officials have not confirmed whether the video is authentic or not.

According to the Dallas Express, Gladney faces a year in prison and a fine of up to $4,000 on the charge, which is a misdemeanor.

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