Landscaper fatally runs over homeless lady sleeping in California park with lawnmower

A homeless mom sleeping in a California park was killed final week after she was run over by a lawnmower — and investigators left “chunks” of her physique strewn throughout the grass, her household claims.

Christine Chavez, 27, was mendacity within the tall grass of Beard Brook Park in Modesto round midday on July 8 when an worker driving a John Deere tractor with a pull-behind mower swept the realm.

The unidentified employee stated he didn’t see the sleeping lady till he “seen a physique within the grass he had already made a move by way of,” Modesto police stated.

The worker known as 911, however Chavez was pronounced useless on the scene.

Relations stated their grief has been compounded by what they known as a disrespectful, botched clean-up.

“They left massive chunks of her far and wide, simply lined up with the grass,” the sufferer’s sister Rosalinda told Fox 40.

“We have now to go see the place as a result of we needed some sort of closure, and to be proper there, trying on the floor, after which rapidly, seeing chunks of her, is horrible.”

“Even after they go and decide up a canine from the road they take extra time.”

Chavez’s father, Christopher, stated he was in a position to pocket items of his daughter’s bones, cranium and tooth within the days after her demise.

The lady’s household believes the careless dealing with of her stays is likely to be as a result of she was one of many metropolis’s hundreds of homeless residents.

Chavez, who has a 9-year-old daughter, had been transient for the final three or 4 years and infrequently slept on the park, which was formally acquired by close by E&J Gallo Vineyard the day earlier than the tragic demise, according to the Modesto Bee.

The 12-acre park is frequented by unhoused folks and was as soon as a certified tenting web site for the realm’s homeless earlier than the possession change.

Different homeless folks stated they noticed Chavez wash her hair within the park’s creek earlier than going to sleep on a hill close to the playground and baseball area.

Twenty minutes later, the mower got here by way of.

Chavez’s household is now calling for justice of their cherished one’s demise and for stronger metropolis ordinances that defend homeless folks.

“She didn’t deserve that for that motive, for being homeless,” stated her older brother Randy Chavez, 33, of Arizona. “My sister was cherished. The one factor she needed was to be free.”

“We wish ordinances to vary so it doesn’t occur once more. Regardless if they’re homeless they’re nonetheless folks and ought to be handled the identical as some other folks.”