WATERLOO - An obituary for an otherwise alive Waterloo teenager was submitted to The Courier as part of a scheme to get away from work for a few days, police said.

The newspaper ran the obituary for 17-year-old Daniel "D.J." Reddout after a man who identified himself as Reddout's father submitted the information in December.

The man, James Ralph Snyder, who is the boyfriend of Reddout's mother, said Reddout died at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota after a lengthy illness. But people familiar with the teen and his family noticed he was alive and well at a downtown restaurant later that week.

Now Waterloo police have arrested Snyder and the boy's mother, Mary Jo Elizabeth Jensen, on warrants in connection with the bogus obituary.

Snyder, 36, of Stout, was arrested Sunday for tampering with records. Jensen, 33, of 3323 Parkridge Road, No. 130, was arrested for accessory after the fact.

The charges are misdemeanors and allege Snyder submitted a false record or writing with the intent to deceive or "conceal a wrong."

According to court records, both Snyder and Jensen worked at Tyson Foods in Waterloo and started taking time off from work in December by saying Reddout was sick and in a hospital.

As time passed, the scheme escalated, and Tyson officials were told the teenager was on life support and then told he had died.

"(Reddout) was actually alive and well during this time, and this practice was done in order to take time off work," police investigators wrote in court records. The son told police about the plan, records state.

Snyder and Jensen took several days for funeral leave, and Tyson officials told the two they needed to verify their absence from work, records state.

"The boyfriend eventually went to the Waterloo Courier and had a false obituary placed in the newspaper to satisfy their employer," records state.

After the obituary was published, people who knew Reddout noticed him at the Happy Chef restaurant, and one of the employees there went to police about the matter. The newspaper was also informed the teen was alive.

Jensen initially told the Courier the bogus obit was a case of bad communication and said Snyder submitted the obituary after she told him her son was ill.

She said she joked that Reddout had died, and Snyder then took it upon himself to place the death notice, which included the time and place of a funeral, which was to have taken place a few days earlier.

Court records show both Snyder and Jensen now work at different businesses.

Contact Jeff Reinitz at (319) 291-1578 or jeff.reinitz@wcfcourier.com.