Left to right: Joshua Cullen and a car said to belong to him carrying a wheelbarrow and a ladder (Lee County Sheriff's Office).
A Florida man is behind bars after wrapping his deceased mother's body in a rug and dumping it in a river so he could spend her money, according to law enforcement in the Sunshine State.
Joshua Kuke Cullen, 47, stands accused of one count each of neglect of an elderly person and abuse of a dead human body, according to authorities in Lee and Charlotte counties.
"What began as a missing person investigation soon revealed a web of lies, deception, and a shocking disregard for human dignity," Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said during a news conference.
On May 25, Lee County deputies first took note of the situation when they arrived at the woman's home in North Fort Myers. There, the missing persons report was made by Cullen himself, authorities say.
The defendant apparently had multiple concerns about what might have happened to his mother, according to law enforcement.
To hear Cullen tell it, he had not seen his mother since March. The defendant allegedly went on to tell investigators his mother had suffered a stroke, was hospitalized, or had possibly run off with a wealthy man who Cullen could not identify, the sheriffs' offices said.
The search for the woman began in earnest.
But alarm bells quickly emerged.
Investigators allege Cullen had been draining his mother's financial accounts — and had even purchased an RV.
Then, on May 29, Lee County detectives learned that Charlotte County deputies had discovered human remains near the Peace River.
"A group of boaters saw something large submerged in the water," Lee County Sheriff Bill Prummell said in the combined press release. "We responded, and located a woman wrapped in carpet, bound tightly and weighed down by cinder blocks and chains."
The body was the defendant's mother. Cullen reported her missing on Memorial Day, but she had been dead for weeks, authorities say.
"These remains were wrapped in blankets rolled inside a rug and bound with tape," Marceno said during the news conference.
After the grim discovery, investigators began searching the area near the river — and found what they believe to be tools used by the defendant to try to surreptitiously dispose of his mother's corpse.
"Some of the things they collected were a wheelbarrow, blue straps, and a ladder," Prummell said during the news conference.
Law enforcement shared traffic surveillance photos that purport to show some of the items used in the failed plot. In those photos, the wheelbarrow and ladder are strapped to the top of a car said to belong to Cullen. Investigators said they created a timeline based on the images to tie the defendant to the scene of the crime.
"We believe the woman died inside the home, and Cullen continued living alongside her deceased body," Marceno added. "This sorry excuse for a man left this woman exposed, discarded, and alone while he selfishly carried on with his life."
On Tuesday, Cullen was arrested at the Hitzing Avenue home he previously shared with his mother in the Twin Pine Villages neighborhood. The defendant is currently detained in the Lee County Jail on $50,000 bond. He is slated to appear in court on July 6.