Prosecutors charged Heather Stines on Thursday over the alleged concealment of a corpse in her apartment’s refrigerator, police said, New York Daily News reported.
Investigators were drawn to her apartment following a tip Monday and identified the corpse as Kawsheen Gelzer, a registered sex offender and drug dealer, court documents said, the New York Daily News reported. Officers said they found Gelzer’s body parts wrapped in black plastic bags stored in the refrigerator and freezer. Police also found Gelzer’s severed head in the refrigerator, court documents said, according to New York Daily News. (RELATED: Family Calls Foul After Chiefs Fans’ Frozen Bodies Discovered Outside Friend’s Home)
“The refrigerator was taped up,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at a Tuesday press conference, the outlet reported. Kenny suspected this was done to keep the terrible “smell inside.” Stines was the only person in the apartment when the police searched the house, since her husband is currently locked up in another state for an unrelated crime, according to New York Daily News.
“She was saying, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to jail,’” Germaine Roberts, a 53-year-old neighbor of Stines, told the outlet. Roberts added that police would not let Stines leave the apartment. “From my kitchen, I can see into her kitchen and I could see them taking the photos with the forensic light.”
Police have charged a 44-year-old Brooklyn woman after the decapitated, dismembered body of a registered sex offender was found in in her taped up refrigerator.https://t.co/z60e7OwmPY
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) January 26, 2024
Medical examiners identified Gelzer based on his fingerprints, a criminal complaint read, ABC News reported. Stines is currently being held in a New York City jail, and it is not clear if any attorney has agreed to take her case, according to the outlet. She is being held on $50,000 cash bail, according to New York Daily News.
Gelzer went missing after visiting Stines and her husband Nicholas McGee, law enforcement said, according to New York Daily News. Police suspect he could have died during an altercation about an ongoing drug dispute with the couple, the outlet reported.
Stines has not been formally charged with killing Gelzer, the New York Daily News reported. Stines did not make any comment about the body in her apartment but has admitted to living in that apartment, court documents said, according to New York Daily News.
Stines had a criminal record for three alleged shoplifting arrests in 2022 that she allegedly never showed up to court for, according to court documents obtained by New York Daily News.