Katie Dowd
SFGate, San Francisco
(TNS)
Jul. 16—A Modesto woman was killed last Saturday when she was accidentally run over by a lawnmower pulled by a John Deere tractor, police said.
Christine Chavez, 27, was in Beard Brook Park on July 8 when a contracted landscaping worker allegedly ran over her with a pull-behind lawnmower. The worker apparently did not realize at first what had happened, and later called 911 when they saw a body in a spot they had already mowed. Police have reportedly ruled the death an accident.
According to family members who spoke with ABC10, Chavez was unhoused and, at the time of her death, was sleeping in the grass. The park, which until recently was public, is now owned by E.&J. Gallo Winery.
“I’m still speechless. I’m still shocked that we’re actually still standing again for the fifth day in a row in the same spot where Christine took her last breath,” Dez Martinez, founder of advocacy group We Are Not Invisible, told ABC10. “And yet it’s still not cordoned off. It’s not taped off. There’s no one here to pick up the remaining parts that are still here.”
Chavez’s father, Christopher Chavez, told KCRA that his daughter often came to his house but was known to sleep outdoors. He said he couldn’t believe that no one noticed her in the grass and demanded a full investigation of the circumstances of her death.
“It’s a lie that they didn’t see her,” he said. “I’m going to keep going because I need to. I’m looking for justice, and I’m going to be there until something happens.”
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