Kasem Family Battle Takes an Ugly Turn

The family bickering after Casey Kasem's death has yet another chapter—and it's a doozy, the New York Post reports. Widow Jean Kasem, 65, has filed a lawsuit accusing Kasem's attorney of plotting with her ex's three grown children from a previous marriage to kill Kasem "for financial gain." Filed in LA county, the wrongful-death suit claims attorney Samuel Ingham III "and Casey's older adult children ensured that Casey starved to death in a strange hospital far from home without his wife of more than three decades and youngest daughter [Liberty Kasem] by his side." The lawsuit also alleges that Ingham made hundreds of thousands of dollars from the estate while conspiring against Kasem. "A law license is not a license to kill," per the brief.

A 2018 episode of 48 Hours does a good job unraveling the family squabble. On the show, Jean argues that Kasem's adult children plotted to fool Kasem into giving them power attorney over his medical choices, which led to his death, per the Post. "It was always about the money," she says. They responded with a wrongful death suit accusing her of elder abuse for relocating Kasem from a California rehab center to a friend's Washington state home. "Jean killed my father," says daughter Kerri. At age 82, Kasem died in 2014 at a hospital in Washington state from a disease similar to Parkinson's. The "seemingly never-ending battle over Kasem's estate"—valued between $80 million and $100 million—continues while the late radio legend's remains lie in Norway, per CBS News. (More Casey Kasem stories.)