The family of a homeless mother who was killed after being run over by a lawnmower while sleeping in California park have shared their horror at the circumstances of her tragic death.
Christine Chavez, 27, was killed on July 8 after laying down in the long grass in Beard Brook Park in Modesto at around noon to sleep.
She was tragically run over by an unnamed employee driving a John Deere tractor with a pull-behind lawnmower as he attempted to clear the area.
Modesto police said that the worker didn’t see Chavez was sleeping there until he "noticed a body in the grass he had already made a pass through," via the New York Post.
The worker called 911 but Chavez was pronounced dead at the scene from her injuries.
Chavez's devastated family has since said that their grief was worsened after visiting the area to find that "chunks" of their loved one's body which they claim had not been cleared up by investigators.
Her sister Rosalinda told Fox 40: "They left big chunks of her all over the place, just covered up with the grass.
"We have to go see the place because we wanted some kind of closure, and to be right there, looking at the ground, and then all of a sudden, seeing chunks of her, is horrible."
She added: "Even when they go and pick up a dog from the street they take more time."
Chavez's father, Christopher, also claimed that he found fragments of his daughter's bones, skull, and teeth, in the area in the days after her death.
The family has slammed the clean-up following the tragic accident, claiming they believe it was handled with less care because Chavez was unhoused.
According to reports from the Modesto Bee, Chavez - who has a nine-year-old daughter - had been transient for the last three or four years and had often slept in the park.
The 12-acre park was once an authorized camping site for the homeless in the area but was officially acquires by E&J Gallo Winery the day before Chavez's death, the publication states.
Other unhoused people in the area said they had seen Chavez wash her hair in the creek in the park before heading to a hill near the playground and baseball field to sleep, just 20 minutes before the landscaper came through the area with the lawnmower.
Chavez's family is now battling for justice for their loved one and calling for stronger policies to protect homeless people in California.
Her brother, Randy Chavez, added: "She didn’t deserve that for that reason, for being homeless. My sister was loved. The only thing she wanted was to be free.
"We want ordinances to change so it doesn’t happen again. Regardless if they are homeless they are still people and should be treated the same as any other people."
Our thoughts are with Christine Chavez's family at this devastating time.
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