A woman left her husband's body rotting in a bedroom of their home because she thought he would rise from the dead, a Hamilton court heard Monday. 
 
 ​Kaling Wald pleaded guilty to failing to notify police or the coroner that Peter Wald had died from an illness that wasn’t being treated. She received a suspended sentence and an order to get counselling as well as 18 months probation. 
 
 The macabre case first came to light back in January, when the woman was arrested and charged with neglect of duty regarding a dead body and indignity to a body. The two charges were withdrawn and replaced with the single charge. 
 
 The sheriff found the 51-year-old’s body while trying to evict Wald and his family from their St. Matthews Avenue home in the city’s north end last year. 
 
 Regional coroner Dr. Jack Stanborough told CBC news in a previous interview that Wald’s body was found in an “advanced state of decomposition” when it was discovered in an upstairs bedroom. 
 
 “Evidence suggests he’d been dead for weeks, if not months,” Stanborough said. 
 
 'He's in God's hands now' 
 
 Wald died around March 20, 2013, according to summary of the case's facts provided by Crown counsel Janet Booy. He had diabetes and was suffering from a foot infection, she wrote. Neighbours in the area told CBC News that Wald had been seen hobbling for some time before he stopped being seen in public. 
 
 When neighbours asked his wife about him, all she would say was he “was in God’s hands now.” Wald refused to go to hospital, court heard Monday. "He believed God would cure him," Booy wrote. 
 
 Neighbours described Wald as a deeply religious but kind man. He could be seen driving through Hamilton in a blue Astro van adorned with religious symbols and sayings. He could also be seen wearing clothing with religious-themed writing on it. 
 
 Both lawyers in the case agreed that Kaling Wald had no ill intent, according to the Hamilton Spectator. 
 
 "We were trusting God … we thought, 'OK Lord, you know better,'" Wald told the Spectator. 
 
 Wald thought her husband went into a coma "sometime in March and eventually died, probably around March 20, 2013," Booy wrote. 
 
 Wald slept in the bed with her husband for one night, just before he died. Then she noticed his stomach was bloating and rigor mortis was setting in on his forehead, court documents show. 
 
 After he died, his wife sealed off the room so the smell of the body wouldn’t permeate through the rest of the house, where she was still living with her six children. 
 
 "Kaling and her five children who resided in the house are devout Christians and thought Peter would be resurrected and therefore kept the door locked and waited for him to come to life," Booy wrote. "There were also friends who resided at the house. They all prayed on a daily basis for Peter to come back to life." 
 
 No criminal activity or public health concerns: coroner 
 
 Wald’s body sat in the room until September, when the sheriff came to evict them from the home after they defaulted on the mortgage. 
 
 Health officials and police were called in, but the body had decomposed to the point that it was impossible to confirm a cause of death. 
 
 Stanborough said the body was in an “advanced state of decomposition.” Wald was found covered with two blankets and a toque on his head. His feet were sticking out from underneath the blankets, and there was gauze wrapped around his left foot. 
 
 According to a pathologist’s report, Wald died “likely from natural causes.” 
 
 “There was nothing in the examination that would suggest criminal activity or public health concerns," Stanborough said in a previous interview. 
 
 The Children’s Aid Society was previously called in, but found no concerns for the children's well-being and the case was closed, the Spectator reported. ||||| TORONTO A Canadian family lived with a corpse in their upstairs bedroom for six months because they believed the deceased man would be resurrected if they prayed, but the body was discovered when the family was evicted for not paying the mortgage. 
 
 Kaling Wald, 50, pleaded guilty to failing to notify police that her husband had died, an offense under the provincial Coroner's Act, and was sentenced on Monday to probation and counseling, her lawyer told Reuters on Tuesday. 
 
 Peter Wald, 52, died in March 2013 of what authorities believe were natural causes following a foot infection linked to his diabetes, defense lawyer Peter Boushy said. 
 
 His wife Kaling Wald left him in bed and sealed up the bedroom in their Hamilton, Ontario, home to prevent the odor of decomposition from disturbing the busy household, which included five of the couple's six children, as well as other adults living in the home. 
 
 "Just as Jesus raised Lazarus after the fourth day, so too did she believe God would resurrect her husband in due time," said Boushy. The family was active in Christian street ministry and outreach in Hamilton, an industrial city about 70 kms southwest of Toronto. 
 
 "There clearly was an over-exuberance of one's faith," he added. 
 
 The corpse was discovered in September 2013 when the local sheriff arrived to evict the family after they defaulted on the mortgage. It had attracted rodents and was badly decomposed, but the family had packed his things in preparation for the eviction and did not attempt to conceal the corpse. 
 
 The Children's Aid Society investigated the family after the discovery of the corpse, but found no concerns and the case was closed, documents showed. 
 
 Boushy said his client now understands what the law required and would not do the same thing again. 
 
 "She certainly was remorseful, and definitely was teary-eyed," he said. "Indeed, she noted that she was never actually able to cry over the passing of her husband, but this seemed to have been an emotional breakthrough after the court proceedings yesterday. I think counseling is certainly going to be beneficial for her." 
 
 (Reporting by Andrea Hopkins. Editing by Andre Grenon)
– "There clearly was an over-exuberance of one's faith" in a Canadian woman who lived with her husband's corpse for six months while she and five of their children prayed for his resurrection, a court heard this week. Kaling Wald's husband, Peter, is believed to have died in March last year, but the 52-year-old's decomposing body remained in a room in their Hamilton, Ontario, home—sealed to prevent the smell getting out—until that September when the sheriff arrived to evict the family for defaulting on their mortgage, the Hamilton Spectator reports. She told investigators that the family and seven adult friends who lived in the home all prayed daily for him to come back to life. Neighbors tell the CBC that Peter Wald was a deeply religious man who had Christian sayings and symbols on his van and even his clothes. He had diabetes, and authorities believe he died of natural causes. His wife was initially charged with neglect of duty regarding a dead body and offering an indignity to a body, but that was reduced to a single charge of failing to notify police or the coroner of the death; prosecutors agreed there was no ill intent. On Monday, she was given a suspended sentence and told to get counseling. Her lawyer tells Reuters that his client now understands the law, is remorseful, and after court proceedings, has finally felt able to properly grieve for her husband. (In Detroit last year, two brothers hoping for resurrection allegedly stole their 92-year-old father's body from a cemetery.)