A California man killed himself with a makeshift guillotine in an unusual and macabre case that resulted in the arrest of an alleged squatter who police say tampered with human remains.
Police believe Robert Enger built the contraption at his Santa Rosa home as early as 2019, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported. Neighbors told the newspaper that Enger was friendly and an “unbelievable craftsman”, who also struggled with mental health problems for many years.
But the nature of his death didn’t become clear until after a woman came across a skull in the bushes near her brother’s home and reported it to police earlier this year.
Officials eventually determined the skull, which had scrape marks on it and a wire handle, was that of Enger. The 62-year-old was last seen alive in July 2019 when he was treated at a local hospital for a head injury that police now suspect resulted from a failed attempt to use the homemade device. Police think he died by suicide using the contraption, but that his remains, at least initially, went undiscovered and his home was empty until a man named Robert Melvin Ross III started squatting there in 2020.
Police allege Ross lived in the house with Enger’s remains for months and invited others there for parties and to use methamphetamine. Law enforcement were called to the property on multiple occasions, and say it was “filthy” and “filled with debris, trash, foods, piles of stuff”, according to the Press Democrat. But they were not aware that Enger’s remains were under the debris.
In 2021, a man told police he had attended a party at the property with Ross and saw what he believed were the decomposed remains of a human. He said Ross at one point “proceeded to remove the skull” and scraped it with a knife, the newspaper reported. Police later found Ross, who told them he had discovered Enger’s body at the bottom of the contraption.
“Robert Enger placed himself under that contraption, manipulated it, was killed, and then his body was manipulated later by Robert Ross and others,” said Anthony Turner, a violent crimes detective with the Santa Rosa police, to the Press Democrat.
Ross has been charged with the unauthorized entry of a dwelling and unlawful handling of human remains and pleaded no contest to possession of a memento from human remains, but has since asked to withdraw that plea and said he signed it “under duress, meaning the contract is null and void”.
In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 800-273-8255 and online chat is also available. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org
• This article was amended on 9 December 2021 to remove details about the death which were not in accordance with Guardian editorial guidelines.
