A dismembered body found inside a refrigerator in a Brooklyn apartment in January could have been there for two years, police said.
The victim, Kawsheen Gelzer, 40, of Brooklyn, was reported missing by his family nearly two years prior to the discovery, according to police.
The investigation on Nostrand Avenue began after Crime StoppersĀ received an anonymous tipĀ on Jan. 22, Joseph Kenny, the NYPD's chief of detectives, said in January.
The tipster indicated the possibility of a dead body being stored in the third-floor apartment's refrigerator, multiple law enforcement sources told NBC New York.
The woman who lives in the apartment let officers into the residence when they responded to the Crime Stoppers tip on Monday evening. Once inside, the cops' attention was drawn to a conspicuously taped-up refrigerator, sources said.
When the officers tried to inspect it, the woman allegedly became combative, leading to her arrest and subsequent removal from the scene, sources said.
Get Tri-state area news delivered to your inbox. Sign up for NBC New York's News Headlines newsletter.
Inside the refrigerator, officers discovered black plastic bags containing what appeared to be parts of a human body, including a head, Kenny said.
Local
Detectives from the 67th Detective Squad and Brooklyn South Homicide subsequently confirmed the presence of human remains.
The woman revealed to detectives that the body belonged to a local drug dealer who had a dispute with her husband last September, sources said.
Police are now telling NBC New York the killing stemmed from a dispute over unpaid rent.
According to the woman, her husband killed the man and stored the body in their refrigerator. She claimed she did not witness the killing and noted that her husband is currently imprisoned in Virginia on an unrelated crime, sources said.
Heather Stines, 45, was arrested and charged with concealment of a human corpse.
Gelzer's distinctive tattoos, as noted in his arrest records, matched those observed on the body, aiding in the preliminary identification process. Investigators showed the woman a photo of Gelzer while she was at the hospital and she positively identified him as the individual in the refrigerator, sources said.
