A woman has been accused of keeping her mother’s dead body in a freezer for nearly two years while she lived in a nearby apartment.
Eva Bratcher, 69, appeared in Chicago court Thursday on charges of covering up the death of her 96-year-old mother and possessing a fraudulent ID card.
Regina Michalski’s body was discovered this week in a freezer in the garage next to the flat they shared, police said.
Investigators believe she died in March 2021.
Ms Michalski’s cause of death will not be known until the body has thawed, investigators said.
The allegations are “very disturbing,” Judge David Kelly said setting $20,000 (£16,300) bail for Bratcher.
She has previous convictions for forgery, and investigators said they were trying to determine whether Bratcher was collecting her late mother’s Social Security benefits, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Bratcher’s daughter, who lives in Kentucky, asked police to search the house after she lost contact with her grandmother.
