Uninvited Guest

Read T. Lake's story: Cecil and Denise Allred's Sunday night began without incident. They ate dinner at KFC. They returned home to Randee Road. He stepped outside to feed chicken scraps to the cats.

Then he saw the body.

There in the mud a few feet from the house, someone lay in a fetal position. Pants and underwear were pulled down to the ankles. The county had seen six murders in the previous five weeks, and Cecil Allred feared the worst.

"Don't go out there," he told his wife. "Call the sheriff."

When Allred, a 51-year-old retired mason, went back outside for further investigation, the body tried to stand up.

Not dead, he concluded.

A live woman.

Partly undressed.

Fully intoxicated.