Raleigh, N.C. — A body found in a trash can near Raleigh's Capital Area Greenway over the weekend is being investigated as a homicide, police said Wednesday.

Regynald Jose Brown, 37, was found around 3 p.m. Saturday along the Walnut Creek Trail in a wooded area just west of Hammond Road.

"His head was face-first in the trash, so the body was upside down in the trash," a caller told a dispatcher in a 911 recording, also released Wednesday.

Homicide detectives are interested in speaking with anyone who believes they might have seen anything suspicious in that area over the past several weeks.

Anyone with information that might help investigators is asked to call Raleigh Crime Stoppers at 919-834-4357 or go to the Crime Stoppers website.

Brown, police said, was reported missing on Nov. 20 and had not been seen or heard from since early November.

His ex-girlfriend, Jacqueline Adams, told WRAL News that he often used the greenway as a cut-through to where he was going.

When she didn't hear from Brown for several weeks, she reported him missing. Several friends had been out looking for him on Saturday when they found his body.

"I knew in my gut something was not right," Adams said.

Brown was the father of three children – ages 15, 13 and 5 – and friends said he was working in landscaping but was a "jack of all trades" who also worked as an electrician, auto mechanic and carpenter.

"He was a good person. He had a good heart. He didn't think twice about helping somebody," Adams said. "He loved his kids, and they loved him."

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