Overview
- On February 27, 2014, 78-year-old Walter Williams was declared dead at a hospice after a coroner and nurses could not detect a pulse during checks around 9 p.m.
- He was taken to Porter and Sons Funeral Home in Lexington, Mississippi, where staff preparing to embalm him noticed movement and breathing hours later.
- Holmes County Coroner Dexter Howard recounted seeing Williams’ legs move in the embalming room, calling the case highly unusual in his two-decade career.
- Emergency services transported Williams to hospital, and doctors suggested undetected vital signs could have been caused by medications or a malfunctioning pacemaker.
- Williams died of natural causes about 15 days later on March 14, 2014, and the story is being retold in December 2025 with no new medical or legal developments.