CHICAGO — A daughter is accused of putting her mother inside a freezer about a week after she died in March 2021 in Chicago and still collecting rent money from tenants for years.
According to bond information, Eva Bratcher is accused of putting her mother, Regina Michalski, 96, on March 4, 2021, inside a new storage freezer she bought about a week later.
Bratcher, 69, was charged Wednesday with concealing a death and possessing a fraudulent ID card.
The date and time, around 2 p.m., was documented on a calendar found inside the home in the 5500 block of West Melrose Street, according to the information.
Bratcher continued to collect rent money from three tenants from the time her mom died until her body was discovered, according to the information. She told the residents her mother was in a nursing home.
Detectives found a fraudulent Illinois ID card with Michalski’s name and Bratcher’s photo on it when they served a search warrant. They also found a document with Michalski’s signature on it, but it was dated after she died.
An autopsy can’t be performed until Thursday or Friday because of the frozen state Michalski’s body was in.
Bond was set Thursday at $200,000 with electronic monitoring, according to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.
Editor’s Note: Due to a reporting error, a previous version of this story said Bratcher is accused of killing her mother. This story has since been corrected to state she is accused of putting Michalski’s body in a freezer after she died.