Lest you think all the decapitation action is going down overseas, police in Houston discovered a "head and an arm" in a black trash bag in a yard on a street called Coke. Next to the bag was a chainsaw. (Yes, it's an honest-to-goodness Texas chainsaw massacre. Take a moment to get all your Leatherface ya-yas out.)
The head belonged to Marlon Thomas, 35, and it was his best friend of over 20 years, Noe Morin, 32, who has been arrested and charged with his murder.
Thomas' head and an arm were found in a black trash bag behind the home where Morin was staying with a family friend. A chainsaw was next to the bag, which was behind cinderblocks that supported the home. The rest of Thomas' body, with a partially severed arm, was found in a backyard next door that was full of overgrown weeds and trash.
The two men sat together on a stoop "every single day," according to one neighbor. Morin was known "to have a temper," and the two men were overheard arguing on Saturday night. At some point, shots rang out.
"Gun shots, we hear that every day so we didn't pay that much attention," [the neighbor] said.
As for something they don't hear every day, apparently there were no revving chainsaw sounds to raise red flags, either. But rumors of a body had begun to get around, and after several 9-1-1 calls were made, police came over to check things out.
[Local resident Brittney] Johnson said after police arrived, she saw one officer open a bag in a trash can...and then exclaim, "Oh my God, it's the head."
And to think, he saw it it on Coke Street. [KDFW, screengrab via KDFW]