A sanitation worker who discovered a woman’s dead body on the side of the road last month reportedly said it appeared she was carefully placed there.
John Richardson, a supervisor for Houston’s Solid Waste Department, told KTRK that a garbage collector called him after finding Alexis Sharkey’s body last month. The employee reportedly suspected Sharkey’s body was a mannequin. Richardson said the employee was not sure because he did not stop.
Sharkey, 26, was found dead on November 28 off I-10 in Houston, four miles from her home. Sharkey last contacted her friends a day earlier, and she reportedly spent Thanksgiving with a friend.
Sharkey was reportedly nude and she had no visible injuries. Authorities believe her body had been there overnight, according to reports.
Richardson explained that the garbage collector was working in the area because the holiday pushed back service to the weekend. He reportedly instructed the garbage collector to continue his route and he offered to check the area.
Richardson recalled finding Sharkey’s feet in the road. He also claimed it appeared Sharkey was carefully placed in the brush along the road.
“Her body was clean. There was nothing on her body. Her body was clean,” Richardson told KTRK.
In light of Sharkey’s death, several people close to her have alleged she was in an abusive marriage.
Alexis Sharkey allegedly told friends during a trip last month that her husband, Tom Sharkey, was abusing her and she feared for her safety. She reportedly also claimed she was divorcing him.
“Throughout the trip, he was sending really awful, nasty messages to her,” a friend told The Daily Beast.
“But one night when she and I were talking alone she said, ‘He strangles me and chokes me out and I black out and wake up on the bathroom floor every single time.’”
Two friends also claimed Tom Sharkey told them that the day his wife disappeared, he had gotten into an argument with her before she “hopped over their patio fence and into a car.” Local reports indicated that Alexis Sharkey did not leave in her car.
Alexis Sharkey’s cause of death is still pending, meaning it is unclear whether she was the victim of foul play. No arrests have been made in connection with her death. Authorities have not named any persons of interest.
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[Featured image: Alexis Sharkey/Facebook]
