MI: Some fear gang link in Delhi beheading

[Christina Marie]

Published December 10, 2005
[ From the Lansing State Journal ]

Some fear gang link in Delhi beheading
Sheriff flatly denies rumors, works to confirm victim's ID

By Kevin Grasha
Lansing State Journal


DELHI TWP. - Some neighbors near where a man's decapitated body was found this week fear the crime was gang-related.

"I'm definitely freaked out," said Kim Cox, whose family lives down the street from the crime scene.

The body of a man was found Wednesday in a Lexus SUV in a driveway at 2485 Houghton Hollow Drive.

The day the body was found, Cox said she asked a police officer if it was a random crime and was told it was probably gang related.

That news did not come as a relief.

Cox, 43, who used to live in a southside Lansing neighborhood with some gang activity, said the family moved to the Houghton Hollow Estates subdivision 14 years ago to escape that.

Ingham County Sheriff Gene Wriggelsworth on Friday night again denied any gang involvement.

"I absolutely do not believe it was gang related," he said.

Preliminary autopsy results on the victim's body did not confirm the cause of death, police said Friday evening.

Authorities would not say whether they have recovered the man's head.

Police would only identify the victim as a male in his 20s of Vietnamese descent.

Ingham County sheriff's investigators still are trying to confirm the identity of the man using fingerprint records and DNA.

Police said results of the autopsy could take up to a couple of weeks.

Neighbor Richard Schlee said people he knows also believe it was a gang-related crime.

"We don't fear for our well- being by those particular perpetrators," he said, adding that his family now locks all their doors and keeps their garage door closed at all times.

Trying to ease the concerns of his 11-year-old daughter has been the main focus.

"We've tried to get her to understand there are some unpleasant things in life, and this is one of those," he said.


http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051210/NEWS01/512100327/1150