PARAGOULD -- Police have identified the skeletal remains of a man who police said was kept hidden in a woman's home for a year, Lt. Ken Jackson of the Paragould Police Department said Tuesday.
The state Crime Laboratory in Little Rock identified the remains of Clarence Shanowat, 78, of Paragould.
Jackson said an autopsy to determine the cause of Shanowat's death is pending.
Police said Gloria Marie Tensley, 65, of Paragould kept the body of her boyfriend in a bedroom in her North Fourth Avenue home for a year to collect his Social Security benefits. Allen Trabaugh, 36, discovered Shanowat's remains July 19 after renting a room from Tensley and noticing a "strange smell" coming from the bedroom, Jackson said.
Trabaugh contacted police and said Tensley told him never to enter the bedroom.
Trabaugh has since moved from the home, Jackson said.
The officer said Shanowat was an American Indian, and Tensley told neighbors that when he died a year ago, he was returned to a reservation in the northern United States for a burial ceremony.
Tensley is charged with abusing a corpse and fraud. She will be arraigned Aug. 29 in Greene County Circuit Court and is being held in the Greene County jail in Paragould in lieu of a $50,000 bond.
State Desk on 07/27/2016