
Maricopa County homeless man charged with concealing body parts.
Maricopa County authorities recently arrested a 51-year-old homeless man for burglary and concealing body parts. The man was discovered hiding a human head in a bucket with the intent of preserving it. Authorities determined that the remains belonged to an individual who committed suicide in 2017.
Mentally Ill Man Accused of Concealing Body Parts
According to Maricopa County Police Department, Matthew David Hall, a 51-year-old homeless person, was recently arrested in the desert area of the county after the authorities discovered that he was hoarding decomposing body parts.
Hall, who’s mentally ill, told the authorities that last year, he was hanging around the camper belonging to Daniel Lucas, a 73-year-old campground resident. Wanting to see Lucas, Hall went up to the camper and knocked on his door several times.
Receiving no answer, Hall told the authorities that he used a stone in order to break one of the camper’s windows. Once inside, he found the body of the 73-year-old man with a gunshot wound to the head in an advanced state of decomposition.
Hall allegedly took a rifle from the man’s camper and the handgun Lucas used in order to commit suicide. In addition to taking the firearms, Hall removed the body from the camper and placed Lucas’ head inside a rusty bucket.
When confronted by the Maricopa County deputies, the man declared that he didn’t murder the septuagenarian and that he merely wants to preserve the severed head by placing it in the bucket.
Hall was arrested and charged with burglary and concealing body parts. The coroner ruled out homicide as Lucas’ cause of death and corroborated Hall’s account. Lucas’ disappearance was reported at the beginning of 2017, but no one managed to find out what happened to him.
The psychiatrists determined that Hall, the man accused of concealing body parts, is mentally ill but did not disclose the nature of his affliction.
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