A 27-year-old Wadsworth man may have been about to bury his cousin Wednesday night when deputies showed up for a well-being check, the Lake County Sheriff’s Department says.
Deputies responded to a home in the 13100 block of West Shenandoah Trail after a relative of 47-year-old Monica Green called to request help.
The relative said she had gone the address earlier to pick up Green for an appointment, but the woman’s cousin, who also lived at the residence, said she wasn’t there.
The caller told authorities that was odd because the relative had no way to get around.
Deputies observed the cousin, Quentin V. Harvell, with dried blood on his arms, and he was held while police checked out the home. Inside, they found blood and a shovel near a back door, the sheriff’s department said.
In the back yard, deputies found the woman’s body, in a wheelbarrow along a tree line at the rear of the property.
Green had sharp-force injuries and cuts, said police, who recovered a bloody knife.
Harvell was charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Monica,” Sheriff John D. Idleburg said in a news release. “I applaud the fast actions taken by our first-responding sheriff’s deputies and the investigation conducted by our detectives, resulting in the offender being arrested and charged quickly.”