An 89-year-old man whose body was discovered in a large suitcase on a rural Arkansas farm was a World War II veteran from New York, police say.
(FOX)- Robert Brooks died of natural causes at his home about a month before his body was discovered in a Prairie County field on March 5, Lt. David Gilbo of the Johnstown, New York, Police Department told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
“He was a war hero who could have been buried at the (Arlington) National Cemetery,” Gilbo said. “Instead, he ends up in a suitcase dumped in a field in Arkansas.”
Police said Brooks, who was 4 feet 11 inches tall, wasn’t dismembered.
Gilbo said investigators are still trying to determine why his body was moved.
Two people considered to be caregivers of Brooks have been detained on suspicion of abuse of a corpse. Police are not considering the case a homicide, but authorities are reportedly looking into the possibility that the two were planning to defraud Social Security.