Smith’s body held pending an appeal

A state appeals court issued a stay in the dispute over Anna Nicole Smith’s body, ruling in West Palm Beach that her remains cannot be moved to the Bahamas until the judges hear a challenge from the model’s estranged mother.

The court is considering a request by Virgie Arthur to overturn a trial judge’s decision giving control of Smith’s body to the attorney for her infant daughter. That attorney decided Smith should be buried in the Bahamas beside her 20-year-old son, who died last year, apparently of drug-related causes.

Arthur has been seeking to bury her daughter in her native Texas.