Deputies say a tip led them to the body. A woman who has lived there 10 years says the discovery is "horrifying."
By SARAH SCHWEITZER
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 13, 1999
RIVERVIEW -- In the 10 years she has lived in a cornflower blue mobile home in Riverview, Melody Hanson has taken every precaution against intruders, guarding her home with a tall wire fence and a Rottweiler whose bark could tame a German shepherd.
What she didn't realize is she had unwanted company all along.
On Wednesday, sheriff's deputies found a body buried in her back yard after receiving a tip from a person they would only identify as "a citizen." Deputies say they may know the identity of the body, but first an autopsy must be conducted to verify some basic information.
"We have not yet been able to determine if it was a man or woman," sheriff's spokesman Lt. Greg Brown said.
The autopsy is expected to be completed today.
For Hanson, the finding made for a frenzied day Wednesday, with television crews and reporters camped outside her house as deputies sifted through evidence in her back yard.
"'It's just been a horrifying experience. It's not every day that you have a body found in your back yard," said Hanson, who is 54 and drives an 18-wheel truck for a living.
Brown offered few details about what led investigators to Hanson's home at 12022 Glenhill Drive in the Tropical Acres section of Riverview, other than to say someone contacted them a "short time ago." Tuesday morning, Brown said, they began excavating and found a mobile home crushed and buried in her back yard.
After digging resumed Wednesday about 7 a.m., Brown said, they discovered a body buried in another part of the property, which covers about an acre.
Brown would not disclose details about the possible identity of the body, but he said, "it does not appear that there's been a report of anyone missing involving this individual."
Hanson, who moved onto the property in 1988, said she did nothing to spark the excavation and knew nothing about the body until deputies approached her with their the news.
"I'm just the innocent person who owns the property," she said.
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