FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (WRIC) — A man is behind bars after authorities say he hid another man’s body in a Spotsylvania County family’s yard while they were on vacation.
The family made the gruesome discovery on Sunday after returning home from a trip to Virginia Beach.
The Free Lance-Star reports that 48-year-old Scott Mattice discovered the body next to his family’s front porch Sunday morning, when he went to get the mower. He says the family had noticed a smell when they returned from Virginia Beach, but weren’t initially sure what it was.
Kerrie Mattice said they had got a note from the sheriff’s office that a vehicle had crashed into the ditch in front of their house Thursday.
Authorities on Monday provided an update to their investigation, identifying the deceased victim as 23-year-old Deandre Miller-Caldwell of Spotsylvania County.
A release from the sheriff’s office states that Caldwell was a passenger in a vehicle being driven by 23-year-old Jarred Smith, of Locust Grove, on Thursday, August 2, when he suddenly lost consciousness due to suspected heroin use.
That’s when it is believed that Smith lost control of the vehicle, veering off the roadway and crashing into a ditch.
Concerned citizens reportedly stopped at the crash scene to offer assistance and observed Caldwell lying in a ditch. Smith told them that his friend was intoxicated.
Investigators believe that Smith hid Caldwell’s body near the Mattice family’s residence, just prior to law enforcement arriving at the scene of the crash.
Caldwell’s remains were later found on Sunday, August 5 after the Mattice family returned home from their vacation.
Smith has been charged with concealing a dead body and is being held without bond.
