LITTLE ROCK — It wasn't the first time the family at 10701 Arkansas 107 in Sherwood heard people outside who they believed were trying to steal off-road vehicles from their shed, nor was it the first time they fired a gun to scare off the would-be thieves.
It was, however, the first time they did so and later found a dead body on their property.
At 1 a.m. Tuesday, Sherwood police said, Erlene and Larry Staley thought they heard - again - the sound of people rummaging around in their open-air shed on a wideopen piece of unfenced land where Arkansas 107 splits into the Sylvan Hills Highway and Kellogg Acres Road.
Erlene Staley called 911 to report a burglary, police said, and Larry Staley went outside carrying a gun to confront them.
As police arrived, Larry Staley fired several shots.
"He told us he fired up in the air several times with warning shots," Assistant Police Chief Norman Golden said.
The officers searched the property in the dark and found nothing, Golden said.
Then, about 12 hours later, Larry Staley called back. Along tiny Gap Creek in the southwest corner of his property, he had found a dead body.
The Pulaski County coroner's office said it is investigating the death as a homicide. Any specific determination of what killed the person whose body turned up in Gap Creek would have to come after an autopsy, according to the coroner's office.
A coroner's spokesman referred all other questions to Sherwood police.
Asked whether any connection exists between Larry Staley firing his warning shots and the body, Golden would only say, "At this time, that is under investigation."
Crime-scene tape stretched around parts of the shed and the property didn't begin to come down until 6:30 p.m. The Sherwood police crime-scene van remained in the carport as a uniformed officer stood sentry in the driveway in a rain slicker and investigators wearing blue rubber gloves worked inside the house and wandered in and out of the trees beside the creek.
Sherwood police were also summoned to the home in July.
Frustrated about four theftsover two years - all concerning recreational off-road vehicles kept in the open shed and visible from the road - Staley and his wife chased off a pair of men they thought were at it again.
He carried a handgun, she a shotgun when they ventured out into the dark morning on July 25, firing over the heads of the men they saw on their property.
"We've had all we're taking," Larry Staley said in an article published in the July 26 edition of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
In that case, Sherwood police found one suspect in nearby woods and arrested him. State law allows homeowners to use deadly force to protect their property.
"I could've killed them," Larry Staley said then. "I didn't go out there to kill anybody."
Front Section, Pages 1, 8 on 10/24/2007