A homeless woman sleeping in a California park was killed last week after being ran over by a lawnmower — and her family claims that investigators left “chunks” of her body strewn across the grass.
Christine Chavez, 27, was sleeping in the dense grass of Beard Brook Park in Modesto around noon on July 8 when a John Deere tractor equipped with a pull-behind mower swept the area.
The anonymous worker claimed he didn’t detect the sleeping woman until he “noticed a body in the grass he had already made a pass through,” according to Modesto police.
Chavez was pronounced dead at the spot after the employee contacted 911.
Family members said their grief has been compounded by what they called a disrespectful, botched clean-up.
“They left big chunks of her all over the place, just covered up with the grass,” the victim’s sister Rosalinda told Fox 40.
“We have to go see the place because we wanted some kind of closure, and to be right there, looking at the ground, and then all of a sudden, seeing chunks of her, is horrible.”
“Even when they go and pick up a dog from the street they take more time.”
Christopher Chavez, Chavez’s father, said he was able to pocket bits of his daughter’s bones, skull, and teeth in the days following her death.
The woman’s family feels her remains were mishandled because she was one of the city’s thousands of homeless people.
According to the Modesto Bee, Chavez, who has a 9-year-old daughter, had been a transient for the last three or four years and frequently slept at the park, which was officially acquired by nearby E&J Gallo Winery the day before his untimely death.
Before the ownership change, the 12-acre park was an allowed camping ground for the area’s homeless and was used by unhoused persons.
Other homeless persons reported seeing Chavez wash her hair in the park’s creek before sleeping on a hill near the playground and baseball field.
The mower arrived twenty minutes later.
Chavez’s family is now calling for justice in their loved one’s death and for stronger city ordinances that protect homeless people.
“She didn’t deserve that for that reason, for being homeless,” said her older brother Randy Chavez, 33, of Arizona. “My sister was loved. The only thing she wanted was to be free.”
“We want ordinances to change so it doesn’t happen again. Regardless if they are homeless they are still people and should be treated the same as any other people.”
