CHESTERFIELD, Va. (WTVR)--Marcia Powers first heard about the body found at the Chesterfield recycling center on the news. At that time, she had no idea the body found was her oldest brother, Mark Henshaw.
"It's hard to get the image out of my head," Powers said Monday.
"Can't imagine what the workers who found him thought,” she said. “Or anybody who would do that."
Marcia Powers knew her brother Mark, a homeless veteran, would often seek shelter under the Boulevard bridge.
"Very difficult to understand that someone would throw him away like trash," Powers said.
Never did she think he'd be found in a heap of recyclables, his body badly decomposed, in a Chesterfield recycling facility off Old Stage Road, just over 20 miles away.
"He was just a simple guy,” she said. “No college education-just do what he had to do to get by."
Marcia says Mark would pick up odd jobs and that painting was his favorite. He'd often brag about homes he would paint and how they were on the historic homes tour.
She says he chose to live the homeless lifestyle and that she and her family would offer to help. But she says he was a free spirit and liked that he wasn't tied down to any location.
One homeless man I spoke to off-camera says he was well known. They all called him Rocky. Now his sister hopes some of his homeless counterparts will step up and help answer some important questions.
"The medical examiner wouldn't tell me his cause of death,” Powers said. “If it was a simple death, then they would've said something. I think someone did something and tried to cover it up."
Powers says she last spoke to her brother a couple of weeks ago. If you can help police put a timeline together about Mark Henshaw's death, call 748-0660.
