Neighbors along Tribune Boulevard in Punta Gorda made a shocking discovery last week while sorting through a pile of illegally dumped trash.
"There was a pile of trash that had been dumped, and there was human remains in this pile of trash," said a local resident.
Deputies arrested 26-year-old Daniel Rolando on Wednesday after he admitted to illegally dumping trash from a storage unit he had won at an auction. Investigators later identified the cremated remains as belonging to 39-year-old Nina Brown, who died last year.
Precious Tunstall, a friend of Brown, shared insights about Brown's life and struggles.
"She had sickle cell," said Tunstall. "As growing up, they didn't expect her to live past the age of 21. She wasn't supposed to. They told her that she would never bear children. She had four beautiful children, two girls, two boys, and she did everything that she had to do to provide for those babies."
Brown, described by her friend as a walking miracle, succumbed to her illness last year.
"My niece called me at the end of October last year, 2024, after I had just got off work, and pretty much just told me that Nina had passed away," said Tunstall. "Even though we knew, it's just like she fought for so long, it was just wasn't even a thought in my mind that that's something that she would die from."
Tunstall is now working with the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office to retrieve her friend's remains and return them to Brown's children.
"It was very inconsiderate of him to just dump her on the side of the road," said Tunstall. "I would like to have her ashes back, her remains back, so her children can have her remains."