Human remains discovered in freezer, bloody rags found at Foster Beach as missing person case turns into homicide investigation
Crime scene tape hangs on Tuesday afternoon from the porch of a home at 5919 N. Washtenaw Ave. in the Arcadia Terrace neighborhood on the Northwest Side where authorities said human remains were found in a freezer.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Police discovered bloody rags along the lakefront and human remains in a freezer inside a boarding house in Arcadia Terrace as they searched for the building’s owner Monday evening, turning a missing person case into a homicide investigation.
The owner — a woman who hasn’t formally been identified — is believed to be the victim, Chicago Police Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan told reporters Tuesday. She was found around 7 p.m. Monday in the 5900 block of North Washtenaw Avenue, police said.
Deenihan said a suspect who lived in the boarding house — and frightened other residents — was taken into custody after pulling a knife on a tow truck driver he allegedly hired to move a “large plastic bag” to Foster Beach, where bloody rags were found in a garbage can.
A resident of the boarding house reported the owner missing Monday, Deenihan said. She hadn’t been seen for roughly a day. Detectives confirmed she’d been seen “walking around the neighborhood on Sunday.”
Deenihan said the resident who made the report pointed investigators to a neighbor “the other tenants were afraid of.” They said the person “had recently called a tow truck” to haul off “a heavy bag.”
“We learned that this individual dumped a large plastic bag in a garbage can at Foster Beach,” Deenihan said. “And detectives were able to go to that garbage can and see that there were some bloody towels in that garbage can.”
The can and its contents were then taken to the Cook County medical examiner’s office for further investigation, Deenihan said.
Detectives began searching the suspect’s home and “discovered human remains in a freezer,” Deenihan said. The investigators then left and obtained a search warrant “to go back in and retrieve all of [the] evidence properly.”
On Monday night, the tow truck driver reported to police that the suspect had pulled a knife on him, Deenihan said. The suspect was taken into custody but has declined to speak to detectives.
“We have a long way to go, but obviously we believe that the missing person is … unfortunately the individual we discovered,” Deenihan said.