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

P. Myers (mpwr@u.washington.edu)
Thu, 8 Oct 1998 15:16:46 -0700 (PDT) 

this story is amazing in it's naivete (sp?) of the police and those homed
who discovered the body of this man who did not have to have died.

They are looking for causes of death... why look any further than
homelessness...yes, I know the "why."

And the homed neighbor "cried"... a little late for
tears/empathy/caring...at least for this man... but perhaps not for
others, if the guy will understand what power relationships keep folks
homeless, and mainstream society's part in those relationships.

Feeling real jaded tonight...I wonder what it will take to convince folks
who have what they need that they, too, are a part of others not getting
even the most desperately needed basics.

Pat Myers (from windy, getting colder, rainy Seattle...worrying about the
Tent City folks...)

thanks for the article, Tom.


On Thu, 8 Oct 1998, Tom Boland wrote:

> 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
> 
> 
> ** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is
> distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
> receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. **
> 
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> 

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