MAUSTON, Wisconsin — The leader of a Wisconsin religious order has been sentenced to two years in prison for hiding a dead follower’s body on a toilet for weeks so he could collect her Social Security payments.
Alan Bushey pleaded no contest to hiding a corpse in February.
Judge John Roemer said Wednesday that the 59-year-old Bushey inflicted devastating psychological harm on two young children of a follower in whose bathroom he stored the body of Magdeline Alvina Middlesworth. Middlesworth was 90 when she died.
Juneau County District Attorney Scott Southworth had asked Roemer to impose a four-year prison term.
Bushey’s attorney says his client believed God would raise Middlesworth from the dead.