Heather Stines (Facebook, X) and the scene outside of her apartment on Monday (NY Post, YouTube screenshot)
A 45-year-old woman in New York has been arrested after police performing a wellness check on her Brooklyn apartment allegedly discovered a dismembered human body — including a severed head — inside of a freezer that had been taped shut. Heather Stines, who lives in the apartment, was taken into custody on unrelated charges as authorities wait to obtain a search warrant for the home, authorities confirmed to Law&Crime.
The victim has since been identified as Kawsheen Gelzer, a 40-year-old man who has previously been arrested multiple times, New York NBC affiliate WNBC reported. The case is currently being treated as a homicide due to a narcotics dispute, sources described as “senior NYPD officials with direct knowledge of the investigation” told the station.
According to the report, officers with the New York City Police Department at about 6:15 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 22 responded to a request for a wellness check on Stines’ fourth-floor apartment on Nostrand Avenue in Flatbush. A tipster reportedly contacted CrimeStoppers and informed police that someone was keeping a body inside a refrigerator located in the apartment.
Upon arriving at the scene, Stines let the officers into the apartment, but reportedly started acting more aggressively once the taped-up freezer drew the attention of police, the report states. Stines reportedly became more combative when police began examining the appliance, leading to her being detained and escorted out of the residence.
She was later found to have several outstanding warrants for petit larceny and was placed under arrest, the New York Post reported. However, because she “complained of illness, Stines was taken to the hospital for evaluation.
Inside the freezer, police allegedly found multiple black garbage bags containing dismembered human body parts.
“During the course of patrol’s investigation, they came across some body parts in the freezer,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told the Post on Tuesday.
Though it was initially unclear, Kenny told the news outlet that it appeared as if all of the remains belonged to the same person.
“We have a head. We have some limbs,” he said. “As of right now, it seems like we have the whole body.”
WNBC reported that police were able to identify the body as Gelzer due to his distinctive tattoos, which authorities had on file from his previous arrests.
While Stines was undergoing a psychiatric evaluation at Brookdale Hospital, police reportedly showed her a photo of Gelzer and she confirmed that he was the dismembered body in her freezer. She reportedly claimed that her husband — who is currently serving time in a Virginia prison on unrelated charges — killed Gelzer in September and put the remains in the freezer.
The New York City Medical Examiner’s Office will conduct an exam to determine the cause of death, but sources reportedly told the Daily Mail that they “have to wait for the body (parts) to thaw out” first.
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