body in trash can was homeless man's [Richmond, VA] FWD

Tom Boland (wgcp@earthlink.net)
Thu, 8 Oct 1998 17:42:21 -0400 

http://www.gatewayva.com/rtd/dailynews/virginia/body07.shtml
FWD  Richmond [VA] Times-Dispatch - Wednesday, October 7, 1998


         BODY WAS HOMELESS MAN'S

         By Jim Mason
         Richmond Times-Dispatch Staff Writer


Police have identified the man found dead in a trash can in an East
Richmond neighborhood as Robert Noble Davison, a 53-year-old homeless man.

Davison's body was discovered  about 9:30 a.m. Saturday, wrapped in a sheet
inside a Supercan, which was apparently dropped off by someone in an alley
behind two homes in the 2500 block of Peter Paul Boulevard.

"According to the state medical examiner's office, there was no foul play,"
Officer Bill Chorney, a Richmond Police Department spokesman, said
yesterday.

The medical examiner has not yet told police the cause of Davison's death,
Chorney said. An autopsy was performed.

Police are still investigating how Davison's body ended up in the Supercan.

"We are still looking into some things," Chorney said. "We believe we will
eventually uncover how that body came to be in a Supercan.

Police listed Davison's last known address as 302 W. Canal St., the address
for the Daily Planet, a haven for the homeless at Canal and Belvidere
streets just west of downtown.

"He never did stay here, but he came in for meals and to take a shower and
hang around," said Dorothy Hamilton, a Daily Planet outreach counselor,
yesterday.

"His nickname was Rocky," said Rhonda Hector, another counselor. She said
Davison worked some jobs for fast-food restaurants.

"He was a ladies man and was known in the East End," Hector said. "He was a
very gentle person."

As police continued their investigation yesterday, residents of the quiet
neighborhood of modest, tidy homes where the Supercan was found say it and
the body must have been dropped off in the alley overnight.

"It wasn't out there Friday evening about 6 o'clock when I parked my car in
the back," said Otis K. Daniel, a retired A.H. Robins Pharmaceutical
employee, whose home is beside the alley in the 2500 block of Peter Paul
Boulevard.

"It was about 9 o'clock the next morning when I saw the can as I was coming
out the back door to feed my dog," Daniel said on Monday.

He said he called over to Brian Tinsley, his neighbor who was in his
fenced-in back yard on the other side of the alley and asked if the green
City of Richmond Supercan was his.

Tinsley said no.

"A friend of mine walked over, raised the lid and looked and said it looked
like a body in it," Tinsley, 42, said. "I went over and took a look, and
sure enough it was a body wrapped in a sheet. I felt what felt like a human
arm. It was completely wrapped up in a sheet,"

The gruesome discovery got to him, Tinsley said. "I cried that somebody
would take somebody's body and throw it in a trash can."

The trash can with the body in it was taken Saturday to the state medical
examiner's office.

END FORWARD


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