Homicide victim mistaken for Halloween decoration

Construction workers in Chillicothe, Ohio, discovered a woman’s body hanging on a chain-link fence after at least one person mistook it for a Halloween prank before authorities confirmed that it was really a corpse, Time reported, adding that the deceased was identified as 31-year-old Rebecca Cade.

Cade allegedly got into a fight with Donnie Cochenour Jr., 27, the night before she died, and Cochenour has since been charged with her murder, Time claimed. According to authorities, she was running from him and got caught in the fence when she died of blunt force trauma to the head and neck, the report stated.

“It was the worst Halloween scene you could ever imagine,” resident Tammy Dixon told ABC 13. “It was straight out of a horror story,” Dixon, who initially thought the victim was a Halloween zombie, stated, adding, “She was hanging over there. Her left hand up.”

Dixon also explained to Columbus’ NBC 4, “I heard them over there, the construction guys, yelling. They had taken her down, and that’s when [I realized] this is not a dummy. It is real.”

Neighbor Chrissy Young was quoted by NBC 4 with a message for local law enforcement: “Do something. We got kids out here that play. We had an 8-year-old seeing that this morning. No kid should have to see that … and now we have to pretend it was something else.”

Cochenour is being held on a $2 million bond, ABC 13 reported.