Casey Kasem's wife and children fought over his care until he died, then she took his body to Norway

Casey Kasem, host of "American Top 40", had Lewy body dementia in his last years. His second wife, Jean, and his three children from his first marriage, Kerri, Julie and Mike, fought over his care. In November 2013 a court denied the children's conservatorship petition. On 7 May 2014 Jean removed him from a Santa Monica care facility and took him to Washington state. On 12 May a Los Angeles court made Kerri temporary conservator. On 11 June Judge Daniel Murphy authorised Kerri to stop food, water and medication, under Kasem's 2007 directive. Jean's lawyer called the order "the functional equivalent of a death sentence." Kasem died four days later, aged 82, of sepsis from a bedsore. Jean had the body moved to Montreal in July and then to Norway. It was buried at Vestre gravlund in Oslo on 16 December 2014. In May 2015 the Los Angeles District Attorney declined to charge Jean. In November 2015 the children filed a wrongful death suit against her. A 2018 police investigation found appropriate care and no evidence of homicide. The suit settled in December 2019 on undisclosed terms; Kerri said she was "forced" into it. In 2026 he remains buried in Oslo. Kerri campaigns for "Kasem Cares" laws giving adult children rights to visit an ill parent; Arkansas's 2017 law was reported as the ninth state's.