Landscaper Thinks NC Man’s Body Is A Halloween Prop And Mows Around It

CHINA GROVE, NC — Haley Reavis has difficulty getting her head around the assumption that for at least a couple of days and perhaps longer, her brother’s body, laying face down in front of a vacant house in China Grove, was mistaken for a Halloween decoration.

Even a groundskeeper mowing the property at 770 Shue Road on Oct. 9 thought the corpse of Robert Owens, 34, was a prop and was careful to avoid hitting it with his mower, according to police in China Grove, a town of about 4,400 people 15 miles from Charlotte.

The landscaper thought Owens’ body was “a fake dummy used for training by numerous law enforcement agencies on the property over the last few years,” police said in a news release Tuesday.

“Don’t know how you can do that,” Reavis told the Queen City News. “Mow right beside someone and assume they’re a Halloween decoration at a house no one lives at.”

On a GoFundMe page set up to raise money for funeral expenses, Reavis said her brother had been “stripped of his clothes and his belongings, leaving him in his underwear.”

A construction worker at a site nearby called police the following day. Authorities don’t suspect foul play and are awaiting the results of toxicology testing, China Grove police said in a news release. Until an autopsy is performed, it’s unknown if an earlier intervention would have saved Owens, who was last seen by his family on Oct. 1.

Reavis told the Queen City News that all police have told her and Owens’ mother, Brenda, is that he wasn’t shot. Police haven’t verified it, but a construction worker in the area questioned by the man’s family said he had “cuts and scrapes on his arms like defense wounds,” Reavis told the news outlet. “His words.”

On GoFundMe, she wondered, “who in their right mind … can assume a half-naked dead body with scratches and glass around it is Halloween decor?”

Owens wasn’t perfect, his sister told the Queen City News, and had been known to do drugs. But that doesn’t explain what he was doing at the vacant house at the end of a long driveway off Shue Road. Their grandmother had lived in the vicinity for more than 40 years, but “he’s never been back here,” Reavis said. “He’s never been known to come here.”

The land where Owens was found is owned by a Charlotte-based commercial real-estate company, according to public records. It’s unclear how it had been used, but Reavis said on GoFundMe that it had been a training site for police dogs.

Answers are coming, Reavis said on the crowdfunding page.

“I can’t give out many details [due] to the ongoing investigation, but just know the truth will come out,” Reavis wrote on the crowdfunding site. “We have evidence that has been handed over to the detective. If you’re reading this, and you were involved, just [know] you will get what you deserve very soon.”

Owens leaves behind a loving family.

“Robert, we all love you and miss you dearly,” Reavis wrote. “Gone too soon, but you will never be forgotten. Your demon you battled here on Earth is over, may you rest in peace, Bubby. I love you.”

China Grove police have asked anyone with information about Owens’ death to email Detective C.A. Frantz at cfrantz@chinagrovenc.gov.