Man's body found near Goldsboro home
By Dennis Hill
Published in News on December 21, 2007 1:46 PM
Landscapers found the body of a missing man behind a woman's home on Forest Hill Drive Thursday, police and witnesses say.
Masonic Deonte Harvey, 25, of Wilmington Avenue, reportedly ran from police after injuring himself with a "stick-type object" on the morning of Dec. 13.
Harvey reportedly had tried to swallow cocaine, then tried to force the drug down his throat with this stick, causing him to bleed, according to police reports.
Emergency medical workers had been called and were attempting to help him when he ran away.
Authorities have been searching for him ever since.
On Thursday morning, police found the body after getting an emergency call from a Forest Hills Drive resident.
Police Chief Tim Bell said on Thursday that police assumed the body was Harvey's, but that they did not know definitively until a positive fingerprint match was made.
The Forest Hills Drive homeowner, who asked not to be identified, said she has a crew of two landscapers who work on her yard. As the workers were using leaf blowers behind the home, they discovered the body, the resident said.
The woman's son, who also asked not to be identified, said police were called immediately to the scene.
Harvey's sister, Deborah Jackson of North James Street, said her brother was visiting a friend when the incident occurred.
Ms. Jackson said her brother feared being taken for mental evaluation and that might be why he ran from medical workers and police who arrived on the scene.