A mortuary transport employee is facing criminal charges for allegedly stealing a ring from the hand of a deceased woman, authorities said.

The ring was reported missing by the woman’s family after her body was taken from a Riverside hospital, where she died in September, to a mortuary in Orange County, authorities said.

Riverside police detectives tracked down the ring, valued at several thousand dollars, to a pawn shop in Los Angeles County, authorities said. They determined it had been pawned by Mark Anthony Zuniga, 27, of Downey, who was employed by the mortuary transport company at the time of the theft.

Zuniga was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of removing articles from a dead body, which is a felony, authorities said.

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