York woman sentenced for hiding grandmother’s remains in freezer for Social Security benefits

A York County woman was sentenced on Friday to 11 and a half to 23 months in jail and two years of probation for keeping her grandmother’s remains in a freezer for 15 years while receiving her Social Security benefits.

Cynthia Black, 63, of York Haven, was sentenced by Judge Gregory M. Snyder on counts of charged with theft, receiving stolen property and abuse of a corpse. Black was represented by Assistant Public Defender Ashley Keefer, and the District Attorney’s office Senior Deputy Prosecutor Virginia Hobbs.

Before sentencing, Snyder and the attorneys debated over a statute that would determine if Black needed to pay restitution for the stolen Social Security money, which according to Hobbs, was estimated at $99,357.

Keefer made the case that according to Pennsylvania law, restitution against a federal agency, such as the Social Security administration, could not be collected in state court. She based her argument on a section of the case “Commonwealth v. Hunt” that stipulates restitution cannot be paid to non-person entities.

Hobbs said since there was such a significant theft and any federal case would be past the statute of limitations, Black should be ordered to pay restitution.

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Snyder, although he said he disagreed with the logic of it, ruled that Black did not have to pay restitution.

“My decision is that while I’m unhappy with it, the way the law is written, the Social Security administration is not entitled to restitution and if the Social Security and government wants to pursue it … that’s up to them,” Snyder said. “I can’t make up this law. I don’t see anything that’s ambiguous about that statute. We cannot ignore the plain language of statutory law.”

Snyder suggested someone needed to contact lawmakers in Pennsylvania to point out how the specifics of the law have affected the case.

After, Hobbs and Keefer made their cases before sentencing.

Keefer said Black’s actions were rooted in mental illness, listing specific traumas of her childhood, such as the death of her father early in life, abandonment of her mother and a connection with the Hells Angels biker gang.

She said the fact Black moved the body when she moved instead of finding a way to dispose of it spoke to her mental illness and inability to let go rather than trying to steal money.

Hobbs said Black’s actions were rooted in greed, referencing statements she made to police upon her arrest. Hobbs said the police record had Black stating she needed the money as part of her arrest.

Two women initially found the body at Black’s Warrington Township home where she and her now-separated husband had resided in 2007. It had fallen into foreclosure and the visitors were looking at buying the property.

Black told investigators she found her grandmother, Glenora Reckord Delahay, dead in Delaware County in 2004 and, fearful of losing the Social Security income, hid the body in a freezer in the basement.

According to police, when Black moved, she brought the freezer to York County, using the Social Security benefits to pay the mortgage.

The autopsy did not determine a cause of death, but Dennis Dirkmaat, chair of the Mercyhurst University Department of Applied Forensic Sciences, estimated Delahay died between the ages of 67 and 110.

Jack Panyard is a reporter at the York Daily Record, part of the USA TODAY Network. Contact him at jpanyard@ydr.com, 717-850-5935 or on Twitter @JackPanyard.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Jail for York woman who froze grandmother's body for Social Security