A Kentucky neighborhood was shocked after a local man put up Halloween decorations featuring fake corpses labeled with the names of local officials.
Authorities say 58-year-old Stephan Marcum of Stanton is behind the chilling display that has left the small Powell County community deeply unsettled.
Marcum was arrested Saturday and charged with terroristic threatening after Commonwealth’s Attorney Miranda King spotted the setup outside his home on Court Street and alerted police.
The scene appeared more like a crime scene than a holiday prank. Black plastic bags shaped to resemble bodies were scattered across Marcum’s yard, each tagged with the names or titles of city leaders.
Among them, one bag hung from a noose with the words “District Judge,” while other body bags were labeled “Mayor” and “Zoning Mgr.”
“It’s something you just don’t see every day,” Powell County Judge Executive Eddie Barnes commented to WKYT.
Barnes said the display made his stomach turn when he saw it for the first time.
“At first I didn’t know what to think about it because I actually drove by and saw it in his yard and thought, wow, that’s kinda harsh.”
Barnes described Marcum as a man capable of being kind, but whose behavior has grown increasingly erratic.
The two have reportedly been at odds for some time over a local zoning dispute, despite knowing each other for years.
According to Barnes, Marcum has been in a long-running conflict with city officials over his refusal to comply with zoning regulations that require homes to have basic utilities like running water, sewage, and electricity.
“He was known to use the bathroom in a bucket and just dump it out,” Barnes told NBC News, noting the complaints from nearby residents about the situation.
The dispute, which has simmered for months, appears to have escalated with Marcum’s Halloween stunt.
Lock Them Up! Russiagate is reigniting…
Obama, Clinton, Comey, and Brennan are all on the hook!
CLICK HERE to demand Russiagate conspirators got to prison!
One of the officials depicted in the macabre scene, a district judge, reportedly recused himself from Marcum’s zoning case after realizing he may have been targeted in the display.
Investigators say the gruesome decorations were confiscated and are now being held as evidence at the Kentucky State Police Post 8 in Morehead.
Marcum is being held at the Powell County Detention Center on a $5,000 bond.
Residents who drove by Marcum’s property this week said they were left uneasy by the sight.
“It didn’t look like a Halloween thing,” one local told WKYT. “It looked like something personal, like he was sending a message.”
Meanwhile, in a separate Halloween-related incident, a South Carolina couple’s elaborate front-yard setup caused a very different kind of commotion — one that had emergency responders scrambling.
Sam Lee and his fiancée, Amanda Riggins Peden, have become local celebrities in Fountain Inn for their elaborate seasonal displays.
This year, they decided to simulate a full-blown house fire, complete with flashing orange lights in the windows and thick white smoke pouring from beneath their front porch.
But the realism of their design proved too convincing for some local residents.
The same night they unveiled the installation on October 3, Fountain Inn’s fire department received several calls reporting a house engulfed in flames.
The couple said some residents even drove straight to the fire station to report what they believed to be an emergency.
Fire Chief Russell Alexander said the department has no choice but to respond each time a call comes in.
“It’s bad practice to not send a truck and, ethically, I can’t take that liability,” he told TODAY. “If we get a call, we’re sending a truck, no matter what.”
The situation wasn’t as frenzied as last year, when the same display drew about 30 emergency calls in one night.
“The first year, we were inundated with phone calls from people driving by the home,” Alexander recalled.
“This year hasn’t been as bad — we’ve only had a few calls from people who are new to the area.”
Lee and Peden are known in Fountain Inn for going all out during the Halloween season.
In 2022, their yard featured a mock car crash complete with an upside-down van and a 12-foot skeleton trapped inside.
The year before, they created a staged airplane crash scene, with skeleton passengers dangling from a nearby tree by parachutes.
Their passion for spooky theatrics dates back years. When Lee served as mayor in 2018, he and Peden tied red balloons to every sewer drain in town to promote the release of the horror film It. Locals now anticipate their over-the-top decorations each October.
“It’s just gotten crazier and crazier every year,” Lee said, noting that the couple even drives a hearse around town and hands out full-sized candy bars on Halloween night.
Lee declined to give away his creative secrets for this year’s display but did confirm the use of a professional-grade smoke machine to achieve the illusion of a real fire.
“You can easily Google it and find out how it’s done,” he said with a laugh.
Residents can view the fiery illusion from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. each night through Halloween.
