Witness: Census worker's hanging body naked, bound

[Barack_America]

Witness: Census worker's hanging body naked, bound

By ROGER ALFORD and JEFFREY McMURRAY (AP) – 24 minutes ago

BIG CREEK, Ky. — A part-time census worker found hanging in a rural Kentucky cemetery was naked, gagged and had his hands and feet bound with duct tape, said an Ohio man who discovered the body two weeks ago.

Jerry Weaver of Fairfield, Ohio, told The Associated Press on Friday that he was among a group of relatives who discovered the body of 51-year-old Bill Sparkman on Sept. 12.

"The only thing he had on was a pair of socks," Weaver said. "And they had duct-taped his hands, his wrists. He had duct tape over his eyes, and they gagged him with a red rag or something.

"And they even had duct tape around his neck. And they had like his identification tag on his neck. They had it duct-taped to the side of his neck, on the right side, almost on his right shoulder."

Weaver said he couldn't tell if the tag was a Census Bureau I.D. He said he didn't get close enough to read it...

More:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jbzG_BlkG2Hfc818EPRRn1bBlP6gD9AULOPG0


It's seeming pretty clear at this point that this was a vicious murder, directed against a representative of the federal government.

(Also posted in LBN)

[izquierdista]

1. This is going to surprise the clueless

There have been plenty of DUers who were just sure it was a suicide or accident.

[Barack_America]

5. I was one of the skeptics.

Not because my gut was not telling me it was murder, but because it was so important not to get ahead of the details in this case.

[anigbrowl]

You have nothing to apologize for - it was measured skepticism

of not jumping to conclusions, and keeping up with current information (saving the rest of us a lot of time from tracking it all). It was clear that you ween't trying to push a particular view or deny reality, just that you wanted to get your facts straight. Good job.

[Barack_America]

21. Thanks.

Yesterday was weird when the people who were finally willing to go on the record started backtracking on almost everything from the original AP story. So yeah, I really wanted to figure out what we really knew about this story.

These new details are pretty shocking. This crime is actually worse than what my gut was telling me, and I thought my gut feeling was pretty gruesome.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

9. I've never seen anybody sure it was a suicide or accident.

Just that they wouldn't rule it out.

I still wouldn't.

[kestrel91316]

11. You can't rule out suicide or accident based on this????????

Oy vey.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

12. Nope.

Why would I?

[anigbrowl]

17. It couldn't be ruled out based on the (minimal) information *previously* available

This is considerably more detail than was available even, and now a conclusion of murder is obvious. Yesterday all that was known was that he had died of asphyxiation; there was a report his hands and feet being bound, but even that came in late in the day.

[armyowalgreens]

2. Jesus fucking christ.

I will never understand how someone could be capable of doing something like that to a fellow human being. It just doesn't make any sense.

[MercutioATC]

3. Don't be an alarmist. It COULD be a suicide.

Lots of people bind their hands and feet with duct tape and write "fed" on their chests before they hang themselves.

[mzmolly]

15. "investigators hadn't yet determined whether the death was a homicide, suicide or accidental."

:wtf:

[MercutioATC]

16. I'm betting it was an accident.

I wouldn't want to "get ahead of the facts"...

[mzmolly]

18. True. It's good no one is jumping to any conclusions.

:sarcasm:

[me b zola]

20. I think that the feds need to step in

The local cops seem to be having difficulty.

[mzmolly]

23. Indeed they do.

Hmmmm.

[Kerrytravelers]

4. Wonder where this violent hatred of the government came from...

:shrug:

People can have distrust of their government, protest their government, etc., but this violent hatred of the government is terrifying.

[Barack_America]

8. It is stunning to me that it took two weeks for these details to get out.

I think it speaks volumes about the politics in the region and what the powers that be realize this crime says about them.

[AspenRose]

14. The government is only dangerous when democrats are in power.

:sarcasm:

[FarCenter]

19. Ever since these folks moved from the Tidewater up to the Mountains about 300 years ago

[Ozymanithrax]

6. This should end any conjecture to whether he was lynched.

This is a lynching. He was murdered because he was a Fed.

Beck and other Cry Baby conservatives are responsible for the hate they have spewed.

[AspenRose]

7. I hope his family and friends aren't reading these accounts right now.

They don't need to see or hear this right now.

:cry:

[Shell Beau]

24. That gets lost in all the hoopla I think. His family must

be hurting some kind of bad. I just can't even imagine. I give them my thoughts and prayers. How would any of us feel to have that happen to our loved one? Regardless of whether or not it was self inflicted (which obviously it wasn't). As I said in another thread on this topic, I hope whoever did this is caught and brought to justice soon. Very soon. And I hope the family can have a proper burial, memorial, whatever soon. This is so sad on so many levels.

[anigbrowl]

10. Ouch. Poor guy :-(

[nc4bo]

13. About time - more details. nt

[Barack_America]

22. The author of the AP article was just on Rachel's show, confirming it was his Census ID...

taped to his neck.

Just awful.