Dead animals kept appearing on a grandpa’s Arkansas grave. Then family set up cameras

The dead animals began to mysteriously appear on their grandpa’s grave shortly after Memorial Day.

The family thought perhaps the critters died atop the headstone of the late Fred Allen McKinney after eating fake flowers at the cemetery in Pea Ridge, Arkansas. But more animals started to appear, and family members realized it couldn’t be a coincidence, they told police.

Then they set up two trail cameras.

Over the next several months, photos showed a man walk to the grave with dead animals in his hands, put the carcasses on the grandpa’s headstone and return to a gray Dodge Journey, according to court records. One animal had left the headstone stained brown.

The man appeared to be older and trying to disguise himself, police say in an affidavit filed in an Arkansas circuit court. The man wore denim overalls, a woman’s teal and white jacket, sunglasses and a wig. The family couldn’t recognize him.

Then they caught a break in the case. McKinney’s granddaughter spotted a gray Dodge Journey leaving the cemetery and followed the driver to Walmart, police say. When the man got out, she immediately recognized the man as Joseph Stroud — her grandpa’s former neighbor, police say.

Stroud and McKinney never got along as neighboring farmers, and the two even had a lawsuit between them, the granddaughter later told police. Stroud’s wife is buried in a grave on the same row of graves as McKinney, police say.

In late July, the granddaughter was jogging by the cemetery when she noticed Stroud leaving the cemetery, police say. She went to her grandpa’s grave and found a dead possum on it and eight live babies inside a flower vase attached to the headstone, police say.

The granddaughter called the police, who met her at the Pea Ridge School District administration building. That’s where she is employed, and a nearby middle school has security cameras aimed at the cemetery.

The security and trail cameras show Stroud in a wig arrive at the cemetery and put the dead possum on the grave, police say.

A detective went to Stroud’s home and spotted what appeared to be a bloodstained towel in the back of his Dodge Journey, police say.

In an interview, Stroud told the detective, “No, I’m not going to tell you it was me because it wasn’t,” police say. Stroud denied he was the person in a photo police showed him, according to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

McClatchy News was unable to contact Stroud. He does not have an attorney listed in court records.

Stroud was charged with defacing objects of public respect, which is a felony.

This story was originally published August 18, 2020 at 5:39 PM with the headline "Dead animals kept appearing on a grandpa’s Arkansas grave. Then family set up cameras."