Pa. man buries companion in backyard

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PITTSBURGH -- When he arrived home to find his longtime companion dead four years ago, Kenneth Zang panicked.Neither he nor Mary Whetsell, the woman he had looked after for two decades as her health declined, had the money for a proper burial. Whetsell and her only surviving relative -- her son, Howard -- had been out of touch since a falling out 20 years earlier, and Zang said Whetsell had instructed him not to tell Howard where she was buried.So Zang took the body, wrapped it in a sheet, waited for nightfall and buried it in his yard.She lay there for nearly four years, while Zang, lacking income of his own, cashed her Social Security checks.On Saturday night, police uncovered Whetsell's remains, and Zang now could face charges of abuse of a corpse and federal penalties for Social Security fraud.The Allegheny County, Pa., medical examiner had not released a cause of death for Whetsell as of last night.Sitting on his porch Monday evening, a few paces from a freshly dug hole that once held Whetsell, Zang expressed remorse for his actions but defended their intent."I did wrong, and now I've got to pay for it," he said."I didn't do harm for the lady. There was quite a bit of age difference, but I took care of her, I loved her and we were good companions." Zang, 58, first met Whetsell, who he said was 70 years old when she died, in 1982. Howard Whetsell bought a car from Zang, and they became friends, with Zang becoming fond of Mary.A year or two later, Zang said, the mother and son had a fight, and Howard Whetsell moved out. At that point, Zang started looking after Mary Whetsell, he said.He found her apartments and helped her get around, as Whetsell's childhood polio had led to further health problems in adulthood. Zang said he ended up moving in with Whetsell in the late 1990s.The arrangement was partly financial, as both were of limited means and could use a roommate. They shared a bond, Zang said, though the relationship never was sexual. Whetsell's health worsened, and Zang came home one day in October 2004 to find that she had stopped breathing. He secretly buried her that night, and she remained a constant presence in his mind."It was so hard for me to go over there and cut grass over top of her," Zang said, "to walk out in the yard and know she was there."Whetsell's Social Security checks continued to arrive and Zang, lacking steady income because he performed odd jobs for money, took the money."I knew it was wrong," he said.A little more than a week ago, Howard Whetsell arrived at Zang's door, asking for his mother. Zang told him that Whetsell had died and was buried in an area cemetery, but after Whetsell could find no records of his mother, he contacted police.When confronted by police, Zang confessed the body's true location."I knew it was coming," he said. "It was a matter of time."(E-Mail Daniel Malloy at dmalloy(at)postgazette.com).(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)