If Someone Dies, Abandon The Road Trip

So, this happened: A Detroit-area man kept driving from Arizona to Michigan with his dead girlfriend in the passenger seat. The man, 61-year-old Ray Tomlinson, had been driving with his 31-year old girlfriend and 93-year-old mother on a cross-country trek from Arizona. At some point, Tomlinson's girlfriend slumped forward in her seat, having died in her sleep. Apparently believing he had 48 hours to report the death, Tomlinson continued driving, intent on returning the dead woman to Michigan, rather than leave her body in an out-of-state hospital.

Authorities are investigating, but don't suspect foul play. According to Tomlinson, the woman, whose name has not yet been released, had been homeless when they met. The pair started a romance after he helped her get back on her feet. When Tomlinson travelled to Arizona to visit his mother, the woman came out to meet him, where she was hospitalized multiple times.

Just before leaving for Michigan with Tomlinson and his mother on May 28, the woman checked out of a medical facility with prescriptions in hand, including one for a bottle of 30 OxyContin, an addictive and dangerous painkiller. According to authorities, the bottle was empty when her body arrived.

Tomlinson and his mother agreed to continue driving with her corpse on board, and the grisly scene wasn't exposed until a worker at the medical clinic the deceased had checked out of called to ask if she'd followed up in Michigan. Tomlinson explained what had happened, but refused to stop driving, prompting the worker to call the police. By the time authorities reached Tomlinson in Warren, Michigan, the woman's body had already begun to decompose.

For his part, Tomlinson says the grisly road trip was a result of his feelings for the young woman — "I loved her very much," he told the Detroit Free Press — and his state of shock and inability to believe what had happened: "I was in total denial. ... I just lost a very close friend."

It's unclear whether Tomlinson will face any charges over this; that'll be determined by prosecutors in Macomb County, Michigan. He insists he didn't break any laws, and that if he'd reported the death, the police "would have impounded my vehicle, they would have probably incarcerated me to do an investigation and I had a 93-year-old woman in my car that I needed to get home."