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article <\/p>\n article <\/p>\n
Joshua Cullen is accused of dumping his mother’s body into the Peace River. Mugshot is courtesy of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla. – A missing<\/a> Florida woman’s body was discovered tightly bound and submerged in a river, leading to the arrest of her son, who continued living in her home while raiding her bank accounts, according to the Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n Florida homicide investigation <\/p>\n What we know:<\/p>\n On May 25, deputies went to a home in North Fort Myer\u2019s to take a missing person\u2019s report from Joshua Cullen.<\/p>\n He claimed he hadn\u2019t seen his mother since March.<\/p>\n Cullen reportedly told investigators that his mother had suffered a stroke, was hospitalized, or left with an unidentified wealthy man.<\/p>\n While investigating, detectives learned Cullen had been accessing her financial accounts and had purchased an RV.<\/p>\n Investigators also discovered that her personal belongings, including her bed and other furniture, were missing from the home.<\/p>\n While detectives were searching for the woman, they learned that the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office had discovered human remains near the Peace River on March 29.<\/p>\n “A group of boaters saw something large submerged in the water. We responded, and located a woman wrapped in carpet, bound tightly and weighed down by cinder blocks and chains,” said Sheriff Bill Prummell.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, the Charlotte County Medical Examiner identified the remains as Cullen\u2019s missing mother.<\/p>\n Detectives used license plate reader technology and other investigative techniques to connect Cullen to the disposal site in Charlotte County.<\/p>\n On March 28, detectives said that Cullen’s vehicle was captured traveling toward Hunters Creek with a wheelbarrow secured to the roof. Detectives later determined it was the same wheelbarrow located near where the woman’s body was recovered.<\/p>\n “We believe the woman died inside the home, and Cullen continued living alongside her deceased body. This sorry excuse for a man left this woman exposed, discarded, and alone while he selfishly carried on with his life,” said Sheriff Carmine Marceno.<\/p>\n Cullen was charged with neglect of an elderly person and abuse of a dead human body.<\/p>\n Remaining timeline gaps <\/p>\n What we don’t know:<\/p>\n Officials have not yet confirmed the exact cause or date of the woman’s death inside the North Fort Myers home. It remains unclear when Cullen allegedly began stealing from his mother’s financial accounts or exactly when the furniture was removed from the property.<\/p>\n Active evidence processing <\/p>\n What’s next:<\/p>\n The case remains active as detectives gather and process additional evidence. Prosecutors may file additional charges against Cullen depending on the final outcome of the investigation.<\/p>\n The Source: The information in this story was gathered from the Lee County Sheriff\u2019s Office and the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office, who explained the investigative details through official statements, as well as official testimony from Sheriff Bill Prummell and Sheriff Carmine Marceno.<\/p>\n Florida<\/a>Crime and Public Safety<\/a>Missing Persons<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article Joshua Cullen is accused of dumping his mother’s body into the Peace River. Mugshot is courtesy of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[630,47,28,30,29,6888,115,628],"class_list":["post-295936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-missing-persons","tag-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}