Exhuming Tom Carvel (whose delicious soft serve is all over NY Ballparks)

(excerpts of the story by Nicole Neroulias/the Journal News) Nearly 20 years after Thomas Carvel's death, a niece wants the ice-cream emperor's body exhumed from a Hartsdale cemetery and investigated for evidence of foul play. Pamela Carvel filed a complaint Friday in federal court in Florida demanding that Ferncliff Cemetery release her uncle's body from the plot where he was buried in 1990. Thomas Carvel, an Ardsley resident, died at age 84, just as he was planning to fire two employees whom he suspected of pilfering hundreds of millions of dollars from the company, his niece says. After Thomas Carvel's widow, Agnes, died in 1998 in England, a court-appointed guardian accused Pamela Carvel of manipulating the 89-year-old for millions of dollars. While denying that allegation, she filed a new will in which her aunt left her the family fortune, contrary to the joint will the childless couple had signed bequeathing their estate to the charitable Thomas and Agnes Carvel Foundation, which awards grants and matching gifts in the areas of children, youth and health. Thomas Carvel, who founded a franchise empire of soft-serve ice-cream stands, accidentally created his product when, as a young Greek immigrant peddler, he got a flat tire on Central Avenue in Hartsdale. Carvel hailed passing drivers to quickly sell his melting ice cream, and discovered people loved the softer dessert. He died in 1990 after selling the company to an investment bank for about $80 million. The ensuing rift between the estate trustees, including Agnes Carvel, prompted what has become Westchester's most protracted estate battle, with more than a dozen lawyers representing the various factions.