{"id":195631,"date":"2026-03-08T11:58:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T11:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/195631\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T11:58:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T11:58:25","slug":"high-schoolers-discover-69-year-old-mans-severed-body-parts-floating-in-pond-police-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/195631\/","title":{"rendered":"High schoolers discover 69-year-old man\u2019s severed body parts floating in pond, police say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">SHIRLEY, Mass. (Gray News) &#8211; A 69-year-old man\u2019s severed body parts were found in Massachusetts, according to authorities. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid023DcUDCguNQmgeUbq4cvygbMJk2Ydh9JtPiVvSrNyS9QQodPGCq6pJpSvKdU5VkCFl&amp;id=100066875366451\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Shirley Police <\/a>said around 5:30 p.m. on March 4, a group of high schoolers walking noticed what appeared to be a human leg in the water and notified the authorities, who then found additional body parts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The remains were identified as Peter Degan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThe preliminary investigation suggests that the remains of Mr. Degan were possibly severed by a sharp instrument and at this time foul play is suspected,\u201d the district attorney\u2019s office said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Officials said that in 2019, Degan pleaded guilty to charges related to cocaine trafficking and distribution. After his release from prison, he was living in a pre-release center, which authorities said was his last known address. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">He was last seen alive on Feb. 27, according to investigators. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cCurrently investigators do not believe this was a random attack,\u201d the district\u2019s attorney office said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Authorities have not recovered Degan\u2019s full body and the search for additional body parts continues. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">His cause of death has not yet been determined.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SHIRLEY, Mass. (Gray News) &#8211; A 69-year-old man\u2019s severed body parts were found in Massachusetts, according to authorities.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[294,77509,77510,168,170,169,77511],"class_list":["post-195631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-crime","tag-crime-massachusetts","tag-crime-shirley","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news","tag-peter-degan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}