DAVENPORT, Fla. -- A Davenport, Florida, family started the New Year with a terrible finding in their back yard.

Christopher Martin believes someone left a tortoise, possibly blown up with fireworks, outside of his home on December 31.

“It looks like it was either set on fire or blown up from the pictures,” a neighbor, Stephen Ficarola, said.

Christopher Martin and his wife weren’t immediately available to talk with us on camera, but over the phone Martin says his community has hundreds of tortoises and their nests on property. Martin often spots the tortoises crawling around his yard, but never has he found one dead or mutilated.

“It was a little scary,” Jennifer Hernandez saw the social media pictures of the tortoise. And although Florida Fish and Wildlife haven’t determined the cause of death, she believes it was intentional. “There was fireworks that night for New Year's Eve so that’s what we were thinking what happened, it was definitely intentional,” Hernandez added.

FWC officers told Martin the tortoise, no matter how it died, was intentionally placed in Martin’s back yard after it was killed.

Some neighbors say a message is being sent.

“The turtle shell was on the homeowners’ property, the one who had called the department of wildlife and stopped the construction,” Hernandez told ABC Action News.

Concerned residents at Aviana Resort say they say the parcel where dozens of tortoise nests are, could be developed. Martin contacted FWC and since then construction has not started. Some neighbors believe this delay has the HOA or Square Park Homes upset at certain homeowners.

The HOA that runs Aviana Resort reassured residents they are fully cooperating with the investigation but also said they were not aware of the tortoises or their nests on the property.

Below is a statement provided to residents, through an email, from Aviana Resort’s HOA regarding the permanent halt in construction of its phase two:

“As discussed during nearly every Board Meeting, during the past several years, the community was looking forward to the building of 157 homes in Phase 2 of Aviana, by Park Square Homes, which was originally scheduled to be started late 2019. The dues that would have been paid by these homes would have defrayed the costs to all homeowners, requiring little, if any, increase in HOA dues.