The funeral director who handled the memorial services for James Brown says a foreign news report that his body has been moved is false.

LaRhonda Petit, who proved through a DNA test in 2007 that Brown was her father, said the remains of the late entertainer had been removed from a crypt to avoid an autopsy being done, according to an article in today's issue of the Daily Mail. She also told the newspaper that her father's death was due to drug use and enablers - not a heart attack as was claimed.

"My daddy's body has disappeared," she told the Mail. "I have no clue where it was taken, but I need to know where."

However, Charlie Reid, director of C.A. Reid Funeral Home, said the music legend's body remains where it was buried - in a two-tier mausoleum in the Aiken County front yard of his daughter Deanna Brown Thomas.

"There's no truth to that," Reid said this afternoon. "It would have had to have gone through us. We would have been contacted if that happened."

The family has not notified authorities about the missing body, Reid said. If the family did plan to move it, a permit is required, he said.

Brown died on Christmas Day 2006 in Atlanta.  A private forensic agency did not conduct an autopsy on Brown's body, but did conclude that the cause of death was a heart attack, Reid said.

Elif Crawford, a spokeswoman for Thomas, said she would not be commenting on the validity of Petit's claim. The family plans to issue a statement at a later date, Crawford said today.

"This would be a criminal offense," Reid said of Petit's claim. "If this was the case, she would need to talk to police."