A California man was charged with murder last week after investigators found burned human remains on his property.
The Butte County District Attorney’s Office said a 911 call came in from on March 21 from two men who said they’d found a human skull and other remains on property belonging to 52-year-old Joseph Dexter Taylor. They pair said they’d come to Taylor’s property the day before and found him “agitated and talking about a cremation.” He also had burns on his legs, they said.
Investigators arrived and found the burned remains, the Butte County Sheriff’s Office said. Taylor was arrested on an outstanding warrant and taken to jail while the investigation into the burned remains continued.
The victim — believed to be 33-year-old Chris Kidwell, who had been living on the property since sometime late last year — had been shot before the body was burned, the district attorney’s office said.
Kidwell’s family called the sheriff’s office on the same day the two men said they’d visited Taylor’s property. The family said they’d been unable to contact Kidwell for about a week. It’s unclear if the sheriff’s office went to the property to try to locate him, but they did not mention that they did so or even received a call from Kidwell’s family in their own press release.
Taylor entered a not guilty plea on Thursday and was ordered held without bail. He also has pending arson cases in neighboring Lake County and is facing charges for being a felon in possession of a firearm and carrying a concealed weapon in a vehicle, jail records show.
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[Featured image: Joseph Dexter Taylor/Butte County District Attorney’s Office]