Editors Note:
MODESTO, CA -This July, Christine Chavez, a 27-year-old houseless woman, was run over by a lawnmower and killed while sleeping on the grass. The machine operator accidentally ran her over and claimed he didn’t realize until it was too late. As bizarre as this case is, what makes it outrageous is the investigation procedure by the police. Chavez’s parents have been returning to the scene and recovering leftover pieces of their daughter, even though the case is still being investigated. This negligence of the police further proves the dehumanization that homeless people face in California, the fifth-richest state in the country.
The California homeless crisis is getting to the point where it shows a nation that abandons its people to suffer homelessness and hunger. As the United States is trying to deal with the fentanyl crisis that has become California’s vexing issue, they are not considering and connecting the dots between this crisis, the high housing costs, and inadequate shelter spaces. This has led to an estimated 172,000 houseless people. Just because a person is homeless doesn’t mean that they don’t have family members out there who care about their well-being. In the case of Christine Chavez, the investigation is ongoing, and as of today, the tragedy is being labeled as an ‘accident.’
The article below originally appeared in the Valley Citizen and the link below is posted with permission of the author.
“There was no yellow tape, there was no yellow tape,” said a family member of a homeless woman who was reported to have died Saturday, July 8 at Beard Brook Park in Modesto.
The speaker was the brother-in-law of Christy Chavez. He was with family members visiting the site of Christy’s death on Wednesday, July 12, four days after she had last been seen near a hillside where a man was mowing dry grass along the west side of the park. The absence of yellow tape at the site was one of several puzzling aspects of yet another in the rising death toll of homeless people in Modesto.
The deceased woman’s family and people who saw her shortly before she died claim she was sleeping in dry grass prior to being run over by a large tractor pulling a powerful mower. According to preliminary reports, a Modesto Police Officer informed the family of her death on Sunday, July 9.
“I saw that tractor and I wondered why it was going so fast,” said a woman named Casey, who had been in the area and saw Christy Chavez just before she was run over.
Read the rest of the story published in thevalleycitizen.com at https://thevalleycitizen.com/family-members-demand-answers-in-gruesome-death-of-homeless-woman/
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