If the vultures collecting on his roof and in the trees above his home weren't enough, Christopher Newark says he knew something was amiss in the Hillsmere Shores neighborhood thanks to social media.
"I got tagged on Facebook 20 times. Everybody knows I live right here,” said Newark. “I thought it was crazy. I was like, 'Dang!'"
Two doors down, a popular recreation area for bikers and walkers alike, Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis now has made one of its trails off-limits after a gruesome discovery on Monday.
"We were given a tip by an individual who informed us that there may be bodily remains in Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis,” said Marc Limansky of the Anne Arundel County Police Department. “Our investigators went out to the scene, searched the area and were able to locate human remains. It appears, preliminarily, that the cause of death was homicide."
For now, police will only say that it appears someone took the victim's body to the park for the express purpose of burying it and concealing their crime.
"The individual appears to be a male,” said Limansky. “It's unknown where he came from, but right now they believe it's a male approximately 20 years of age, a young male, but it's going to take some time for us to determine the identity."
Police have sent the remains to the Chief Medical Examiner's office in Baltimore, and they are checking surrounding jurisdictions to see if any missing person's reports can provide a clue to the victim's identity.
They are also assuring people who live in the neighboring community that they don't believe there's any imminent threat, since it appears someone merely used the park as a dumping ground.
"Who knows what it could have been. Probably something stupid. Some dumb reason. Escalated. People got freaked out. I don't know, man," said Newark. "It doesn't scare me that something's going on right in the park. We'll take care of ourselves if there is something crazy going down."
If you have any information that could help police, you're asked to call their homicide unit at 410-222-4731.
