A farmer in Arkansas has been put in bars earlier this month, charged with damaging the grave of his former neighbor and longtime rival with remains of dead animals.
Joseph Stroud, 78, in the disguise of a woman visited the grave of Fred McKinney in Benton County, Arkansas, just north of Fayetteville, a probable-cause report reviewed by Insider and first reported by KNWA said.
McKinney’s granddaughter, Shannon Nobles, informed the police she started finding the remains of dead animals at the grave in late May. By July, when the family reported the strange incidents, they had found 16 dead animals.
“At first, they thought it was just a coincidence and thought maybe the animals were consuming the fake floral and dying,” the probable-cause report said. “When they began finding more dead animals, they realized it wasn’t just a coincidence, someone was placing the dead animals there purposefully.”
The family installed cameras up near McKinney’s grave with the cemetery’s permission and eventually found someone walking up to the grave wearing a teal windbreaker, a wig, and sunglasses. The police immediately identified the person as Stroud.
When officers from the Pea Ridge Police Department paid a visit to Stroud’s home on August 6, they discovered a blood-stained towel in his 2018 Dodge Journey, the probable-cause report stated. Stroud has denied any involvement.
Nobles told the police that Stroud and her grandfather shared a land boundary for several years.
“Shannon said Joseph and Fred never got along with each other and there was even a lawsuit between them where she thought Joseph had lost,” the probable-cause report said.