I need legal advice?

Question

A friend of mine stumbled in to our house last week when he was pretty drunk.
He sat in the kitchen and wanted to talk, so I sat down and listened.
He told me that he had shot a hobo one day while hunting hares.
He saw a movement in a shrub, thought it was a hare that he was chasing and shot the hobo dead who was sleeping there.
He said that he was so shocked and afraid that he loaded the body on to his pick-up and took him home where he put it in a large metal oil drum and filled it with cement. Then, after a day or so, he claims, he drove down to the river where he dumped the drum in the deepest place in the river.
My problem is this;
If ever this comes out, or if ever it is known that I knew about it, and that I failed to report what I knew, will I be punishable by law?
I am not even sure that this was not just the booze talking.
What do I do?

Just to answer some of your questions;
My friend stays on a farm. Iol is purchased in large 220L dums for the farm impliments.
He has a "block and tackle" which is a tripod thing with chans and pullies that they use on the farm to pull out tracktor engines. He could have loaded a heavy drum with that.
All farmers usually have pockets of cement on their farms to repair roads with...
The possibility that this is real scares me...

Sorry about spelling. My keyboard is sticking

Answer 1

First, it sounds fabricated. The whole thing seems pretty weird... he would have to mistake a sleeping person for a hare, then shoot & kill the person. Hobos don't just sleep out in the woods, even though they are hobos.

Secondly, where the heck did he get the metal drum from? Most people don't just have those laying around. Where did he get the cement from? Most people don't have enough of that laying around to fill an 80-gallon oil drum, either. Not only that, if you poured that much cement into a drum, it would take more than a day to harden.

I'm also confused how he got the drum onto his truck or to the "deepest part of the river." You can figure a body would weigh about 175 lbs, the drum would weigh 35, and the cement would weigh about 500 lbs+. How would he get it into the back of a truck? How would he get it to the deepest part of the river---is he expecting to load it into a canoe???

I give it 99.999% chance that the story is made up and you're worrying over nothing. I advise you to just stay clear of this nut job so you don't have to worry about the next crazy thing he says or does.

That said, you will not get into trouble for failing to be proactive about reporting it. It would still be a good thing to do. Your "friend" needs to be investigated; even if he hasn't done anything, he needs to realize that he can't make statements like that without consequences. He may not like you for it, but it may keep him out of even more trouble in the future.

EDIT: based on your additional details, it sounds like you feel that it is within his capacity to have disposed of a body the way he described. I'm still somewhat skeptical... I wouldn't expect, for example, a hunter to just fire into some brush hoping to hit his target before seeing it, nor would I expect so much cement to dry in such a short period of time, but you should probably want to say something. You may also want to report how he alleges that he moved the body; if he, in fact, shot someone and transported it in his truck, there may be blood in or near the truck. The sooner you act, the better.

Answer 2

The first thing you should do is verify the story if these is true or not, by going to the place where he told you that he put or place the body with, check if there is a tell tale sign that is such a thing such as large metal oil drum filled with cement in the river where he said he put the drum.

No you are not liable, you donot know if the story is true or not so how would the police arrest you for? For suspicion of murder? Get real. The police are not that stupid...yet.

But if you verify the veracity of the story and you found it true and didnot REPORT it to the proper authority then you are guilty of obstruction of justice, if somebody will tell that he told you the story in the first place. Even if you know its true & check on it, yet didnot report it, unless somebody testify that the story reach you then you are guilty of that but if nobody will tell or give story about you & the hobo then you are still safe nothing to fear. Keeping solid story is not really a crime, unless you are involved one way or another. In this case, you have no connection to the hobo not even a friend or relatives so what could they think of a crime to charge you? Imaginative I guess.

Answer 3

Tricky.
My suspicion would be that the story is fabricated. However your ethical and legal obligation is to report. You could try to cover all bases to save face by: making an anonymous report to the police that you have been told that a drum containing a corpse was disposed of in the river. If the police recover a body then immediately make a report of all you know. If they do not then disregard the story as drunken boasting.
As the poster above already pointed out, there are a lot of suspicious details to the story. You can probably address many yourself. Does your friend use large metal drums? Does he keep large quantities of cement of hand? Is he strong enough to carry a large metal drum filled with cement (probably in excess of 500 pounds) to the center of a deep river? If the answers to these seem suspicious to you then the story may be fabricated.

Answer 4

First I hope that is now an ex friend. You are actually obligated under the law of most states to report the crime. I think you may actually be lacking details unless you can supply a date and place with it. But police might pick him up and interrogate. Some may advise otherwise, but I have been a reserve sheriff officer over 35 years, a justice of the peace for 6 and special investigator for the state attorney general for 2.

I became privy to a similar murder. Unfortunately, date and place could not be linked to any unsolveds. But happily all three perpetrators are now dead. Yes ladies and gentlemen "crack cocaine and meth kills." And in this case it was illegal drugs that served justice.

Answer 5

First of all its considered Second Hand Knowledge, and Depending on the Reliability of your Friend.
Do you think that they would truly be Capable of doing Such a Bad Act ?
In Being Smart learn about the Cupability of the Mind of a Criminal. Then You can Make an Educated Decision what your Legal Status is. Good Luck and Please remember that its Second Hand Knowledge Only :)

Answer 6

Now that you know his secret you may be the next one in the drum, i would let the police deal with it and protect yourself, you never know what a drunken fool will do.

Answer 7

Sounds like your drunken friend needs the legal advice. Report it to the police-let them investigate. You don't want to charged with "aid and bedding" a crime. Do the right thing-report it.

Answer 8

You cannot be charged of any crime because you did not participate nor benefitted from the acts of the felon.