Another Person Found in an Amarillo Dumpster

Amarillo has some crazy things happening these days.   I mean seriously, this is one of those things where you go, "are you serious?"

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The Amarillo Police Department responded to a call Thursday morning, May 19th.  The City of Amarillo Solid Waste Collection station discovered a body on a solid waste truck.  As of this time, the APD has not released the name of the deceased because they have not been able to notify the next of kin.  The case is still under investigation.

UPDATE 5/19/2022 12:19 PM: The deceased was identified as Linda Michelle Mesza-Ray, a 42-year-old female.

However, this incident has been more and more common.

April 15, 2021

A man found himself in a dire situation.  According to the APD

 “The city employee picked up the dumpster and dumped it into his truck and began compacting the trash. The male then jumped out of the top of the trash truck and landed back in the dumpster. He then ran off down the alley.”

They were able to locate the man and he suffered minor injuries. Read the full story here.

November 17, 2010

A homeless man was thrown into a garbage truck after the dumpster he was sleeping in was picked up.  Workers found the man when they saw his hand above the trash in the truck.  He was taken to the hospital.

November 17, 2008

The Amarillo Fire Department responded to a dumpster fire on North Orange St. and found the body of 18-year-old Wesley Hernandez.    The body at the time had not suffered extensive burns.  It was determined that his cause of death was inhaling combustible products.

March 23, 2006

The Amarillo Sanitation Department found a male human head in one of their trucks. An investigation ensued to find out the identity of the remains. The Amarillo Landfill was searched for the rest of the body but it was never located.  The remains were finally identified on March 13, 2009, as Kevin Thomas Walsh.  After further investigation, it was found that he sometimes slept in dumpsters.

It's crazy to think that this has happened in Amarillo multiple times.   I'm not sure how something like this could be prevented other than saying, don't sleep in dumpsters.

Let's hope we don't hear of another body being found in a dumpster or another person being thrown into a garbage truck because they were sleeping in a dumpster.