Florida Judge Orders New DNA Test on Anna Nicole Smith's Body in Fight Over Her RemainsA judge ordered another DNA sample be taken from Anna Nicole Smith's body Thursday as he heard often fiery arguments in the fight over the former Playboy Playmate's remains and custody of her infant daughter.
The swab of Smith's cheek was to be taken in the afternoon, despite the objections of attorneys for her longtime companion, Howard K. Stern, and her estranged mother, Vergie Arthur, and testimony from the medical examiner and DNA experts that such an additional sample was likely not necessary.
Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin said he wanted to make sure all samples were taken before Smith was buried, so her body wouldn't have to be exhumed.
"When we bury her, I want it to be forever," he said in the second day of an emergency hearing.
Smith, 39, died Feb. 8 after collapsing at a Florida hotel.
As the proceedings dragged on, investigators in the Bahamas went into a mansion that Stern and Smith shared, though the officers declined to say why they were there. Stern filed a burglary report claiming a computer, home videos and other items were taken from the house after Smith's death.
Stern claims he is executor of Smith's will and wants to have her buried next to her son in the Bahamas. Arthur wants her daughter buried in her home state of Texas.
"She sits here today to take her to Texas and put her in the ground all alone … and it's sad and it's sick," Stern's lawyer, Krista Barth, told the judge in attacking Smith's mother.
Arthur's attorney, Stephen Tunstall, said his client "wants to take her home to Texas to bury her with the rest of her family." Arthur wiped tears away outside an elevator during a break in the proceedings.
Photographer Larry Birkhead hopes DNA taken from Smith will help prove he fathered the former centerfold's 5-month-old daughter, Dannielynn, who could inherit millions.
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