Family prepares to bring home body of murdered man

Reporter: Stefanie Silvey
New Media Producer: Nick Storm

Family members of a just identified murder victim are now facing the emotional, physical and financial challenge of bringing the body home. After lying in an unmarked grave in Daviess County for more than a decade, Scott Michael Morris is now about to be claimed by his family in Indianapolis.

It's another chapter in a sensational murder case that had baffled Kentucky law enforcement for years.

When we interviewed the Morris family months ago as they awaited DNA results, they felt certain Daviess County's John Doe was their brother however it still didn't prepare them for the confirmation they received from Kentucky State Police Tuesday.

James Morris, Scott Michael's brother, says, "I knew if he was calling me that early in the morning , he found out something. Sure enough, he said that the lab confirmed it was him. And I thought no. I guess a part of me wanted not to believe it really, in the back of my heart."

The family was flooded with emotions.

James says, "It was like Tuesday they just found him and said, we're sorry, but your brother has been murdered, you know, it's like it happened Tuesday, it didn't happen in 1990, it happened Tuesday."

Then having confirmation about how he died.

James says, "Even though we knew that it was possible our brother was dead, we never imagined that he would ever be like that."

It saddens them to know that he was buried in an unmarked grave, with strangers at his service when he could have been buried alongside his mother all these years.

Morris says, "I try to keep my word to my mother, that what ever it takes in my power, I'm going to bring him back."

But the family is learning that may be an expensive and timely endeavor costing them thousands.

James says, "We are going to have to uninter him in Kentucky and because it's been such a long time, we will have to have him cremated and brought back here and placed on top of mama, so there are cemetery costs here and there as well as in Kentucky."

They are more than ready to bring him home and start the new chapter of finding out who did this to their brother.

James says, "It's a relief that we know where our brother is, it hurts knowing the way he had to die."

A fund is set up in Scott Michael Morris' name to help the family deal with the exhumation and reburial expenses. Anyone wishing to help out can make donations to the Scott Morris memorial fund at any Fifth Third Bank location.