BENTONVILLE – A guy is accused of leaving dead animals on his neighbor’s gravestone and grave.
Joseph Alan Stroud, 79, arrested on Monday on the condition of attacking articles of respect for the public. He was released on subpoena after the trial of the crime.
Prosecutors have filed a formal fee against Stroud.
Shannon Nobles told Brian Stamps, a Pea Ridge police officer, that on July 31, his circle of relatives discovered dead animals at the grave of his grandfather, Fred Allen McKinney, according to the probable cause affidavit. He said the dead animals began to appear on May 31.
McKinney died on August 24, 2015.
The circle of relatives first thought the animals ate the artificial flowers and died, according to the affidavit. But they continued to locate the bodies and found out that someone was leaving them in the grave.
They placed cameras directed at the tombstone. The cameras captured a user leaving a dead animal on the most sensitive sidestone and returning to a gray Dodge Journey.
The wearer wore a bluish-green white woman’s jacket, sunglasses and a women’s wig, according to the affidavit.
Nobles told Stamps that one day he was going to the cemetery and saw a gray Dodge Journey coming out of the cemetery and she stayed with him. When the car stopped in a parking lot, she took photos and videos, according to the affidavit.
Nobles said he identified Stroud as someone his grandparents knew and looked like for several years, according to the affidavit. Nobles said there was a trial between them and she believes Stroud had lost the case, according to the affidavit.
Nobles said he trotted one day and saw Stroud walk away from the cemetery. She went to the grave site and discovered a dead possum in it and 8 live baby possums in one of the vases, according to the affidavit.
Nobles said the circle of relatives got rid of 16 dead animals from his grandfather’s grave, according to the affidavit. One of the animals had left a brown spot on the tombstone after covering himself with it.
A funeral home manager told Stamps that the tombstone could be repaired and that it would charge $2,529 to replace it, according to the affidavit.
Stroud told Stamps that he went to the cemetery to his wife’s grave and denied leaving animals at McKinney’s grave, according to the affidavit. Stroud denied being the user in a photograph that Stamps showed him.
Stroud is scheduled to be indicted on September 21 at Benton County Circuit Judge Robin Green.
Crime
Degradation of items of respect to the public is a Class A offense if the repair or replacement charge does not exceed $500. If the charge exceeds $500, the fee would become a crime and the precise amount would be the classification. The fee is a Class B offense if the charge to repair or replace the item is more than $2,500 and if the broken object is a cemetery or a funeral monument.
Source: report