On June 19, 2010, in Brooksville, Florida, 21-year-old Stanley Elias Eckard and his 19-year-old younger brother, Sean, were engaged in a heated argument. The two siblings are verbally sparring over Sean’s girlfriend.
Stanley is jealous of Sean and openly admits his attraction to the girl in question. But this exchange of words soon turns physical, and the two brothers begin a dangerous wrestling match. The altercation quickly gets out of hand when Stanley hears a pop as both he and his brother hit the floor.
Stanley is physically uninjured, but he quickly comes to the conclusion that the noise he just heard was the sound of his brother’s neck breaking. Stanley Eckard has accidentally killed his younger sibling. But instead of calling emergency services, the 21-year-old man makes the abhorrent decision to bury his brother’s body in the backyard.
He would later claim this unthinkable act was done to protect his mother, as he did not want her to see her own son’s corpse. Stanley cited his mother’s weak heart as his true reason for hiding Sean’s body in such a macabre manner. Though he seemingly spared no thought for his father, as Samuel Eckard would be the one to make the horrifying discovery when digging up the shallow grave just three days later.
