A 47-year-old Florida man faces charges after authorities say he wrapped his deceased mother's body in a rug and disposed of it in a river to spend her money.
Joshua Kuke Cullen stands accused of one count each of neglect of an elderly person and abuse of a dead human body. Lee County deputies responded on May 25 to a missing person report that Cullen filed at his mother's home in North Fort Myers. He told investigators he had not seen her since March and offered varying accounts of her whereabouts. Investigators allege Cullen had drained his mother's financial accounts and purchased an RV. On May 29, Charlotte County deputies recovered human remains from the Peace River. The body, identified as Cullen's mother, was wrapped in blankets and a rug, bound with tape, and weighed down by cinder blocks and chains. Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said the case revealed a shocking disregard for human dignity. Cullen was arrested on Tuesday at the Hitzing Avenue home in the Twin Pine Villages neighborhood. He is detained in the Lee County Jail on $50,000 bond and is slated to appear in court on July 6.