MARION COUNTY, Fla. — A man is facing several charges after another man’s body was found in the woods, according to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
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Matthew Allen, 26, is being charged with manslaughter, kidnapping and more.
On Wednesday, deputies responded to a missing person complaint on Mitchell Drive in Leesburg. A person told deputies that their friend, 26-year-old Casey Dean, had been missing since Sunday and that there were rumors his friend may have been killed.
Deputies responded to an address on Misty Meadow Road in Leesburg, where the missing person was believed to have last visited. There, they met with a woman who “appeared distraught,” deputies said.
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The woman said that an altercation happened between the victim and the suspect on Aug. 28, which led to a shot being fired, and that the body was removed from the home and “disposed of in a wooded area in Marion County,” deputies said.
Deputies were provided with a “vague location” of a wooded area in Marion County where the victim was allegedly disposed. After a search through the night and into the next day, the victims remains were found around 5:30 p.m. Thursday in a wooded area behind a home on Avenue Road in Marion County.
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The body of the victim was later identified as Dean. Allen was arrested earlier on unrelated Sumter County warrants and remains in Marion County Jail. An arrest warrant was obtained on Friday in connection with the death of Dean.
Allen is being held on no bond due to Dean’s “violent history and being a flight risk,” deputies said.
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