Two men face charges
Two men face charges in death near St. Cloud
after deputies say a slain man may have been buried alive near St. Cloud.
An Osceola County man told detectives he hit his friend's head with a sledgehammer, then buried him in the yard while he may have still been alive, court records show.
Robert Overcash, 23, faces a firstdegree murder charge in the death of Shawn McKee, 41. He was arrested Monday.
A second man, Anthony Richard Bednarz, 21, was arrested Thursday on a charge of accessory to firstdegree murder after deputies say he helped Overcash bury the body to “cover up” the murder.
A family member of McKee described him as a kind and caring father of two children.
When deputies arrested Overcash on an unrelated warrant early Monday, he had already changed his clothes but still had dirt and dried blood on his hands, records show.
Overcash’s roommates, who were renting out a room in his Ketch Road house near St. Cloud, came home on Sunday afternoon after a day out fishing. The door was open, and when they walked in they found Overcash holding McKee upside down and stomping on his head, the roommates later told deputies. McKee was bleeding. The roommates were frightened and left to spend the evening at a friend’s home.
When the roommates returned home that night, they found a pool of blood in the living room, records show. One of them tried to get in touch with McKee, but he did not answer. She later told deputies that he always responded to her messages on his phone or on Facebook, and it was unusual for him to be unreachable.
“She fears for McKee’s life because she has not been able to get a hold of him,” deputies later wrote in a report. Still, she told deputies she was too scared to call law enforcement immediately.
A few hours later, they called Osceola County deputies, who saw the signs of a struggle inside the home and requested a search warrant. The deputies could not find McKee either, records show.
They did find Overcash, who was arrested on an unrelated warrant for allegedly failing to appear in court. Deputies started questioning him about where McKee could be.
Overcash said he and McKee has gotten into a fight. He admitted to hitting McKee’s head with a 2-pound sledgehammer until he was “incapacitated” but still making noises, deputies said.
Then he dragged him outside and dug a hole in the yard, deputies said. “He didn’t know if McKee was dead or alive due to gurgling types of noises he was making, but still buried him with a shovel,” Detective Roger Huaman later wrote in Overcash’s arrest report.
Deputies say Bednarz helped with burying McKee’s body and tried to clean up the crime scene. Details on his arrest were not available Thursday evening.
Deputies found McKee’s body in a hole in the yard. Inside the home, they found blood splatters, a towel and a bottle of bleach.
Overcash and Bednarz are being held on no bond in the Osceola County Jail. Their next court dates have not been set.