Riley Choate charged after son's body possibly uncovered in Ind. trailer park

(CBS/WBBM/AP) GARY, Ind. - Indiana father Riley Choate has been charged with moving a dead body, even though investigators still aren't certain that the body found in a shallow grave at a mobile home park in Gary is the remains of his 13-year-year-old son, police said Thursday.

Choate, 39, was being held without bail in the Lake County Jail on two preliminary charges, one felony count of moving a dead body and a misdemeanor count of failing to report a dead body to authorities, said Deputy Commander Rob Arnold of the Lake County Police Department.

The boy's stepmother was being held in Hopkinsville, Ky., on an unrelated charge.

Arnold said authorities believe the body is that of Christian Choate. The coroner has ruled the death a homicide but hasn't determined the cause of death, he said. The boy sustained blunt force trauma and internal bleeding, according to a statement coroner's investigators gave to police. He also had a fractured skull.

"It was a very gruesome scene out there yesterday when the boy's body was uncovered," Lake County Sheriff John Buncich said.

According to CBS station WBBM, Choate told Lake County police he moved his son's dead body from a mobile home to a shed, put a Bible on his chest, sprinkled lime on the body to aid decomposition, covered the body in a blanket and plastic and buried it in a shallow grave before covering it with concrete.

Choate lived with his wife and two children in a mobile home in Gary until Christian's death in April 2009, Buncich said.

After Christian died, the stepmother and Christian's sister moved to Kentucky, Buncich said.

The investigation into the boy's death began Sunday when Christian's sister called their mother, Aimee Estrada, who still lives in Lake County, and told her Christian was dead. Estrada called 911, Buncich said.

It is not clear why it took two years for Christian's death to be reported. Police said Riley told neighbors and family that the boy ran away from home. He was never reported missing to authorities.