Father Should Get Body of Soldier, Judge Rules
A judge ruled Wednesday that a soldier’s remains would be sent to his father for burial in Oklahoma, ending a bitter custody battle between divorced parents over the last resting place for a son killed in Iraq.
After Army Staff Sgt. Jason Hendrix, 28, was killed by a roadside bomb, the Army sent his body to his mother in California.
Based on a little-known policy that often grants the remains of military personnel to the eldest surviving parent, the Defense Department then reversed its decision and gave custody to the father.
Hendrix’s mother got a temporary restraining order.
On Wednesday, a Superior Court judge dissolved that order, and the mother said she would not appeal.
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