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Witness finds severed head, body in man’s yard; image he’ll never forget

Posted at 3:41 PM, Sep 16, 2014
and last updated 2014-09-16 17:41:18-04

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – A Memphis man who went to police after he saw a severed head in man’s backyard says it’s an image he can’t forget.

Saturday, police found the severed head and a body at a home in the 3800 block of Dunn Ave. and arrested the man who lives there.

Michael Wilson, Jr., is now facing charges of second-degree murder and abuse of a corpse, according to WREG. 

Lacedric Ruffin said he went to Wilson’s home on Dunn to pick up some scrap metal Wilson said he could have.

While he was loading items on to his truck, he noticed Wilson pull a large black bag out of a garbage can and try to place it in a metal bucket.

Ruffin said the bag started ripping, and a head fell out of it.

“I’m like, ‘man, what the hell you got going on, bro?’ He said something like he didn’t mean to kill him. I said, ‘kill who brother? I don’t want to know who that is, I don’t want to know. You don’t got to tell me,'” Ruffin said.

He said Wilson told him there were also two hands inside the garbage bag. 

He said he thinks Wilson was planning to put the severed head on the back of his truck along with everything else.

“If that bag hadn’t busted, I would have had a head going to the junk yard,” Ruffin said.

Ruffin, who is on parole, said his fingerprints were on everything in Wilson’s backyard and he went straight to police to let them know he had nothing to do with what was going on at Wilson’s house.

Wilson is being held on $2 million bond.

Authorities identified the victim as 48-year-old Andre Cole.

More: Get the latest updates from WREG