Groundskeeper mows around ‘Halloween prop’ that was really a dead body | US News

A groundskeeper mowed grass around what appeared to be a Halloween prop, but was actually a dead human body.

The body of Robert Paul Owens, 34, was found naked and face down at an abandoned log cabin in the small town of China Grove, North Carolina, on October 10, according to police.

A groundskeeper the day before saw the body but believed it was ‘a fake dummy for training’ used by law enforcement agencies regularly there and did not report it, cops said.

Instead, a construction worker informed police.

‘Who in their right mind mows a yard at a house that has power on and no one has lived there in a while but the property is used for k9 training for years, can assume a half naked dead body with scratches and glass around it is halloween decor,’ wrote Haley Reavis on a GoFundMe page for Owens.

‘His tattoos that could be seen on his body should have been a clear indication that he was not a mannequin.’

Owens was last seen on October 8 and was ‘stripped of his clothes and belongings’ which have not yet been found, Reavis wrote. He was left wearing only underwear and socks.

His loved ones believe he died ‘in a suspicious way’ and say that it is not possible to have an open casket remembrance for him because his body was left laying exposed for more than 24 hours.

‘We are not going to be able to have an open memorial do to the condition he is in,’ Reavis stated.

Owens’ family has turned evidence over to police and have ‘many questions that will hopefully be answered soon and justice served to all individuals involved’, Reavis said.

His sister, Haley Shue, suspects Owens was killed by someone familiar with the property and house.

‘There’s definitely some sort of foul play. We have been briefly told (by police) about some glass around his body,’ Shue told NBC News. ‘We don’t know if that glass is from a car or something else. There’s no broken glass on the house.’

China Grove is located about 35 miles northeast of Charlotte.

The GoFundMe page had raised more than $2,600 as of Friday afternoon.

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