We are gathered here today to celebrate the life of an Arvada idol who quite literally never stopped smiling, whose funny bone was always on full display and who always had a good head on his shoulders.
Until this week.
A decapitation has shaken this suburban community to the bone.
Neighbors are leaving flowers at the gravesite. Someone started a GoFundMe for the impacted family. And a Facebook page dedicated to the victim is blowing up with equal parts sympathy and outrage.
A community is mourning, and Taryn Marshall is left staring beside the corpse of Skelly, the beloved — and now beheaded — 12-foot-tall Home Depot skeleton in her backyard.
“I was so mad yesterday, I was shaking,” said Marshall, Skelly’s owner. “I was crying because it just feels like a breach of privacy… It’s something we love and something the community loves. Why would someone want to take that away and do it in such a horrific manner?”
When Marshall and her husband, Ryan, woke up Wednesday morning, they discovered that Skelly — outfitted in summer attire, including a pool noodle, snorkel and a shark-themed floatie around his bony waist — was lying headless in their backyard, which faces busy Ward Road.
Upon investigation, Marshall discovered saw marks on his neck.
The couple is fairly certain the headhunters hopped their fence and, perhaps, brought a ladder to carry out the beheading.
“I’m sure it was just kids in the area who thought it would be funny since he’s so popular,” Marshall said.
Skelly was the kind of guy who always dressed up for holidays. When Marshall first brought Skelly into the family last September and set him up in the backyard to oversee the active roadway, a nearby construction project inspired her to clothe Skelly in a construction vest and hard hat.
“He was the construction supervisor,” Marshall said. “People thought it was hilarious.”
Passersby posted pictures of the skeleton in neighborhood social media groups. Folks dropped letters of thanks in the Marshall’s mailbox, saying the macabre decor brightened their day. Little kids left pictures they drew of Skelly. People started droping off costume accessories and dress-up requests — a sombrero for Cinco De Mayo, for example.
Marshall even started the Skelly on Ward Road page on Facebook. The Halloween decoration has 329 Facebook friends.
“We never thought people would love him so much,” she said.
Skelly wore a Santa hat for Christmas, bunny ears for Easter and had just been adorned in his summer ensemble when tragedy struck.
Kerry Ferro is a neighbor whose daily drive past Skelly brought delight.
“I’ve sent pictures of him to friends around the country,” Ferro said. “I don’t think they realize what they’ve done by taking this. I really hope that if they didn’t destroy it, they can have the kindness in their heart to return it.”
The post announcing Skelly’s decapitation garnered nearly 70 comments.
One neighbor started a GoFundMe to raise money for a new giant skeleton — they cost hundreds of dollars — but once Marshall found out about the fundraiser, she kindly asked the creator to take it down.
“We don’t want to accept anything,” Marshall said. “I like that people are passionate about him and want him to come back, but we just wanted to make the community happy. We’re going to just figure it out.”
Marshall’s computer search history is now full of queries about giant replacement heads.
When the skeletons go back on sale around Halloween, Marshall suspects they’ll adopt a new one.
Or maybe, Marshall hoped, the fanfare around Skelly’s violent end will prompt the perpetrators to return the head from whence it came. (She said the family didn’t report the theft to police because they don’t have video footage of the crime.)
“Life is hard enough,” she said. “It’s the little things that make people happy, and it’s not worth taking away.”
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