Avon Lake Man Dead, Found In Abandoned Home

CLEVELAND — An Avon Lake man was found dead in Cleveland over the weekend, according to police reports obtained by Patch. Someone tried to hide the man's body beneath bed frames, the report noted.

Garland Spence, 65, was found dead on Friday in an abandoned home on West 20th Street. His family called police after they tracked his cell phone to the house.

At the home, the family and police met Reuben Hamilton, 63, who said he lived in the abandoned home, without utilities. He ran a utility cord from a neighboring home to get some electricity. Hamilton told police Spence had overdosed in the home.

Officers handcuffed Hamilton and he led police into the basement. Spence's body was beneath a pile of bed frames and other items. Hamilton said he planned to hide the body but didn't know what he was going to do with it.

According to records, Hamilton told police he and Spence used a needle to shoot up heroin. Spence then overdosed.

When asked why he didn't call 911 to save Spence, Hamilton said he had a warrant for his arrest and didn't want to involve police. He said he gave Spence Narcan, the anti-overdose drug, and tried first aid but it didn't work.

After Spence died, Hamilton told police, he threw Spence's cell phone into a sewer to get rid of it. He placed Spence's wallet in a garbage can at the corner of W. 30th and Althen. Officers found the wallet, but couldn't recover the cell phone, according to police records.

Hamilton was taken into custody and faces charges for tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse. He was wanted on a warrant for violating an order of the Cleveland building department.

More than 400,000 Americans have died since the onset of the opioid crisis in the early 2000s. Arguably, no state has been hit harder than Ohio. A Congressional report in 2016 called the Buckeye State the "face of the opioid" epidemic. In 2017 alone, more than 4,200 Ohioans died due to opioid overdose, the National Institute of Drug Abuse noted.