The wife of legendary DJ Casey Kasem has made arrangements to bury him in Oslo, Norway, a Norwegian government official told NBC News on Friday.
In a letter written to the Norwegian government on Aug. 7, Jean Kasem explained that she would like her husband's final resting place to be Norway because Casey Kasem "always said that Norway symbolizes peace and looks like heaven and I would like to respectfully fulfill his wishes.
"My heritage on my mother's side is Norwegian and I plan to move to Norway by the end of this year, therefore, I would also like to be near my husband's resting place so my daughter and I could visit him often," Jean Kasem wrote.
NBC News has verified the authenticity of the letter through Norwegian journalist Marcus Husby, who filed a public records request with the Funeral Agency in Oslo to obtain it and published it in VG, the country's largest newspaper and news site. A funeral and burial date has not been arranged yet, but local authorities have designated Western Cemetery in Oslo as the final resting place, Oslo's Managing Director of Funeral Service Wenche Elizabeth Madsen Eriksson told NBC News.
"I don't even know if he's in Norway or if he is still in Canada," Eriksson said. "All I know is that the family has our permission to bury him in Oslo, if she wants to do that. As far as I know, he is not in Norway yet."
Kasem died on June 15 in Gig Harbor, Washington, after battling Lewy Body dementia for several years. On July 14, Gaffney Funeral Home in Washington transported the remains to the airport so that he could be flown to Montreal, Canada, Corey Gaffney, president of the funeral home, told NBC News. At the time, Jean Kasem told Gaffney she was planning to bury her husband in Montreal, Canada.
Casey Kasem's children from his first marriage maintain that their father wanted to be buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, California. They say Jean Kasem prevented them from speaking to or visiting with their father for nearly a year before he died.
"The family wishes that Jean would honor their father’s wishes and bury him in Forest Lawn where he’s always wanted to be," a spokesperson for Kerri Kasem, his eldest daughter, told NBC News.
Neither Jean Kasem nor her attorney Teruyuki Olsen responded to requests for comment.