A mother wants her soldier son buried in Oregon but his live-in girlfriend is fighting with her in court to have him buried in Texas instead.

KGW photo

Shawn Freese with his girlfriend, Kimberli Uranga and their infant daughter.

Army sniper Shawn Freese died in Texas after leaving the Army with an honorable discharge during his tour of duty in Iraq.

After leaving the Army, Shawn moved near Austin, Texas where he lived with his girlfriend, Kimberli Uranga, for 18 months. They had a daughter together one month ago.

He got a job as a bouncer at a nightclub. It was there that he was hit over the head with a beer bottle and killed last week.

While the two were not married, since his death, Freese's friends have told Uranga he was planning to propose later this year.

"He was trying to save up for a ring," Uranga told kgw.com.

Uranga still hopes a Texas judge will recognize her as legal next of kin because Texas has liberal common-law marriage rules.

Court documents show that she considers them legally married because they were living together more than a year.

If she is correct, she will have the right to decide where he should be buried.

"All I want to do is lay Shawn to rest in a place where he loved to be, where he wanted to be," said Uranga.

The 20-year-old girlfriend wants Shawn Freese buried in Texas because that's where his infant daughter is being raised. She said if the baby can't have a father, she at least needs a gravesite she can visit nearby.

But Shawn's mother, Cheryl Freese said she doesn’t want to let go after it was so hard to lose her son. She wants him buried at the Willamette National Cemetery, where she can put flowers on his grave, and believes that’s her right, as legal next of kin.

“My son is not married to her," Cheryl told KGW. “He's been my son for 28 years. He's only dated her for a year and a half."

While the courts weigh the issue, a judge placed a restraining order on Shawn’s body, holding it in Texas indefinitely.

Shawn’s brother, Navy seaman Shane Freese, took a leave from his ship in the Persian Gulf to attend the funeral in Oregon. He stands by his mother’s wishes as well.

"I understand that he cared about his girlfriend, but as far as I know he never referred to her as a wife," Shane said.

“I just want my son home," Cheryl said. “I’m proud of him, he’s been in Iraq."

In addition to claiming Shawn’s body, his girlfriend believes she has rights to social security benefits and his military benefits. A decision isn’t expected until the middle of February.

(KGW reporter Jack Penning and kgw.com reporter Drew Mikkelsen also contributed to this article.)