AUTHORITIES CALL CASES INVOLVING CARE OF DEAD BIZARRE COINCIDENCE.

Byline: Matthew Yi Associated Press 

When Bakersfield police found two people caring for a dead body propped up on a sofa in front of the television, they called it bizarre.

So what do you call it when an almost identical case turns up less than 100 miles away and just over a week later?

On Jan. 15, say police, they found Avon Griffis, 44, and her son, Damon Lee, 22, caring for Elizabeth Wilcher, Griffis's 77-year-old mother, who had been dead for four to five months. Officers said the pair believed the dead woman was simply ``demonically depressed'' - under a demon's spell - and would wake up any minute.

Wilcher's body was seated on the living room couch, neatly dressed, her eyes wide open.

``I've been here since 1977 and this has been the most bizarre case that we've come across,'' Sgt. Bill Henry said.

Griffis and her son were hospitalized for psychiatric evaluations, but were later released.

Then, on Jan. 23, police in Fresno, less than 100 miles to the north, found the remains of Geraldine Bennett, 63, in a bedroom in the home she had shared with her 40-year-old son. Investigators believe Bennett had been dead a year or more.

The son, John Bennett, also was hospitalized for psychiatric evaluation. He remains in custody.

``He was delusional and obviously had some mental distress,'' said Lt. Jerry Davis. ``He obviously could not care for himself in an adequate way.''

``In terms of psychological explanations, these people could have mental disabilities that keeps them from understanding the reality of death,'' said Christine Edmondson, psychology professor at California State University-Fresno. ``Reality testing is what we call it. It's one of the features of people who are psychotic.''

It's not unusual for people with ``reality testing'' problems to believe that a dead person could return to life, she said.

``When people have poor reality testing, they can't separate fantasies and what they imagine to be true to what is actually true,'' Edmondson said.

Police looked for fraud in both cases, but came up empty.

In the Bakersfield case, the two continued collecting the dead woman's social security checks.

``If they just tried to defraud the Social Security Administration, they probably would have buried the body or put it in another room,'' said Jim Malouf, the Kern County Coroner's chief investigator. ``But at least from the interviews with the police, they really believed that she was not deceased or if she was deceased, she would come back to life. It sounds bizarre, but that's how the initial statements came out.''

There was no evidence of foul play in either case, and authorities were not sure whether criminal charges would be filed. Coroners in both cases have said their initial guess is that the women died of natural causes.

``The Social Security Administration is trying to recoup the money, but they're pursuing that as a civil complaint,'' said Henry, referring to the Bakersfield case. ``Right now, there haven't been any criminal complaints.''

``These are unusual cases even by themselves and my take on it is that it's coincidental. But the fact that they happened in the same geographic region at the same time makes it even more unusual,'' said Fresno State criminal psychologist Candice Skrapec.