A woman has been accused of keeping her mother’s dead body in a freezer for nearly two years while living in a nearby apartment.
Eva Bratcher, 69, appeared in court in Chicago on Thursday on charges of concealing her 96-year-old mother’s death and possessing a fraudulent identification card.
Regina Michalski’s body was discovered this week in a freezer in the garage near the apartment they had 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 in setting a $20,000 (£16,300) bail for Bratcher.
She has past convictions for forgery, and investigators said they were trying to determine if 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 check the home after losing contact with her grandmother.
