Poor Guy’s Ocean Burial Goes Awry. Very, Very Awry.

After Daniel Lasky died earlier this month from Lou Gehrig’s Disease, the 48-year-old North Carolina man’s family wrapped his body, placed him on dry ice, and drove south to Fort Lauderdale, where they planned to bury him at sea, as he requested.

As described in a press release issued this afternoon by the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, those plans went “awry.”

Last Friday, Lasky’s family boarded the Mary B III, a 55-foot-long fishing boat, and headed out to sea for a committal service, which was attended by his wife, pastor, family members, and the boat’s captain and crew. After the ocean burial was finished, Lasky’s family and friends went fishing in his honor before returning ashore.

The following morning, a boater discovered Lasky’s body floating in the water about 4-1/2 miles off the Hollywood, Florida coast. A police report noted that the “white male victim” was found “floating face down and completely nude with the exception of a sock on his left foot.” Cops subsequently determined that Lasky was not a crime statistic, just the victim of an ocean burial gone bad.

It is unknown why Lasky’s corpse surfaced in the ocean. Environmental Protection Administration regulations covering burials at sea note that “all necessary measures shall be taken to ensure that remains sink to the bottom rapidly and permanently.”

A representative of the Mary B III--which offers four-hour drift fishing trips for $35 per person--declined to comment about the incident. The vessel is pictured above.