A homeless woman sleeping in a weed-covered, overgrown part of a Modesto, Calif., park was killed when a landscaper driving a tractor and pulling a John Deere mower ran over her. Christine Chavez, 27, the mother of a nine-year-old daughter, had reportedly been homeless for three to four years. Her daughter was being cared for by her family.
Modesto police stated that a landscaper saw Chavez’s body in a portion of the park he had already mowed and immediately called 911.
FACT-O-RAMA! In the United States in 2020, there were an estimated 580,000 homeless people outside on any given night. Of these, 270,000 were suffering from substance addiction or severe mental illness.
Chavez’s family went to the park where the woman was killed and, to their horror, found “chunks” of the young mother strewn about the scene of the mayhem.
This is Christine Chavez, she was an unhoused person from Modesto California. Last Saturday she was sleeping in Beard Brook city park when somehow she was run over by a tractor pulling a lawnmower attachment.
I would love to know how you “accidentally” mow over a human being. pic.twitter.com/kIDjfmNCAg— 🥀_ Imposter_🥀 (@Imposter_Edits) July 17, 2023
Chavez’s father found skull fragments and teeth, which he admitted to keeping. Other family members found pieces of flesh and hair.
“They left big pieces of her all over the place, just covered up with the grass,” Chavez’s sister, Rosalinda, declared to 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 pieces of her, is horrible.”
“He doesn’t even get to see his daughter,” Dez Martinez, a spokesperson for the homeless advocacy group organization “We Are Not Invisible,” said to the Modesto City Council. “You guys get to kiss your kids good night. If you buried them, you get to see them. He does not. Thank you.”
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“I am sad for what happened to my daughter, and we want justice for the way that she died,” Josefina Chavez, Christine’s mother, stated.
Fox 40 reported that family members blamed the landscaping company and the city of Modesto for the tragedy.
The deceased woman visited her young daughter frequently, though she usually slept in the park. It is not immediately known why the family, which is suddenly concerned with their daughter’s well-being, provided a home for their granddaughter but not for the deceased woman.
The family started a gofundme to raise money for “Justice for Christine.” It was initially set to raise $7,000 but has since been raised to $10,000. The family has thus far raised $7,020.
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The Modesto park, once the location of a tent city for the homeless, had been purchased by E & J Gallo Winery the day before the woman was killed. Gallo had contracted the landscaping, and quickly released a statement:
Gallo acquired the Beard Brook Park property in Modesto on Friday, July 7, 2023. On Saturday, July 8, 2023, a landscaping contractor was hired to perform weed abatement and fire prevention services. There was an accident at approximately 12:00 p.m. involving the contractor’s tractor and an individual who was not visible and laying in a tall, weeded area. The contractor immediately contacted the Modesto Police Department, and upon arrival, MPD officers declared the individual was deceased.
An autopsy was scheduled to determine how Chavez died. Witnesses claim to have seen Chavez washing her hair in a nearby river two hours before lying down in the tall weeds where she was run over.
According to an update on their gofundme page, the family is planning a protest on Tuesday, July 18, in front of the Modesto Police Department.
