Alan Shalleck, 76, was the writer and director of 104, five-minute episodes of Curious George, which aired on the Disney Channel. The episodes were adapted into 28 books. Shalleck co-wrote a series of books with Margret Rey, who created Curious George along with her husband more than 60 years ago. Shalleck worked at Borders Books & Music on Congress Avenue and Old Boynton West Road, but had not shown up for work in two days.

Shalleck's body was found in his driveway at 4295 King Theodore Drive in Royal Manor Estates, a senior citizen retirement village just east of Military Trail and north of Gateway Boulevard. Police are treating the case as a possible homicide, a spokeswoman said, but have not released a cause of death. Neighbors said they had seen the garbage bag in the driveway Monday morning but thought it was trash. Police responded to an 8:30 a.m. call of maintenance supervisor Burt Venturelli, 62, who was going about his normal routine of taking out bags of trash from residents' front lawns. "I went to drag it this morning and said `this is a body, this isn't garbage,'" Venturelli said. He said the body was naked from the waist up. "I could see blood all over the place." There was a black plastic garbage bag covering his lower half and another his top, Venturelli said. The body was on a rug, he said.

Neighbors described Shalleck, a Westchester County, N.Y., native as a quiet, friendly man who had a lot of company who would come and go. Shalleck gained local recognition as Gramps, the name he used while reading books to children in schools.