whaaaaaat RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) - The Wake County Sheriff's Office said the death of a man who was found bloody and covered in Christmas lights inside his Apex home was not suspicious, nor was the death of his cat found in the freezer.
According to a Wake County search warrant filed on Monday, deputies responded to a home in the 3500-block of Lexham Court on Aug. 9 in reference to a 911 call from the son of the dead man.
In the call, the son told emergency dispatchers that his father looked like he hit his head and bled out. He said he put a blanket over his father "because he did not want him exposed," according to the warrant.
When deputies and investigators arrived at the house, they found the victim dead at the bottom of the stairs near the front door with a blanket covering him and pillows around him, the warrant states.
"Blood was found under the man's body, down the walls of the hallway near the stairs and at the bottom of the stairs on the handrail," according to the warrant.
The son told investigators that he came home the previous night around 9:30 p.m. and found the cat dead in the bathroom. According to documents, the son said "there was blood everywhere and he took the cat and put it in the freezer wrapped in plastic."
The father was then found at the bottom of the stairs wrapped up in Christmas lights. According to the warrant, the son said he cut his dad loose from the lights and that "his dad asked him for a blanket and pillow, which he gave to him and left him on the floor at the bottom of the stairs."
The son then called his girlfriend to come pick him up and met her at the front of his house and left, the warrant shows.
The son told authorities that he then returned the next day, Aug. 9, around 1 p.m. and found his father dead at the bottom of the stairs where he left him the night before.
"When [the son] was asked by investigators and deputies what happened, he told them what happened to the cat is the same thing that happened to his dad," according to the warrant.
The search warrant requests permission to seize multiple items from the home including a 9mm handgun and ammunition, the father's driver's license, a strand of white Christmas lights, and scissors found in the victim's bedroom.
Wake County Sheriff's Office public information officer Eric Curry told CBS 17 on Friday that investigators officially ruled the man's death as accidental.
According to Curry, investigators were able to determine that the father was taking down Christmas lights when he fell down the stairs and became entangled in the lights. As he was falling, he killed the cat by falling over and landing on it. The man may have suffered a stroke, officials said.
The son put the cat in the freezer "to preserve it," he said.
No charges will be filed in the case.
