A woman from Chicago was charged with capital murder after police found her landlord’s remains in a freezer on Tuesday at a Far North Side boarding house.
Tenants called the police on Tuesday evening and reported their landlord missing after they failed to see her tending to her garden for over 24 hours. The tenants reportedly heard a scream at around 2 am on Monday night going into Tuesday.
The slain landlord, 69-year-old Frances Walker, had a two-story home. She lived on the first floor and rented out the other rooms in the house to tenants. She rented out her home to women who needed shelter.
When authorities responded to the 911 call, they searched Walker’s house and found her dismembered remains in the freezer. One of the tenants immediately became a person of interest in the case.
Sandra Kolalou, 36, lived with Walker on the first floor, and when the police wanted to question her about her landlord’s disappearance, she refused to talk to them. According to the police, the other tenants, who reported landlord Walker missing, said that they were afraid of Kolalou and had called the police on her in the past for being too aggressive. Police records also showed that the authorities had responded to 911 calls from the Walker home five times in October.
The tenants told the police that Walker and Kolalou were not on good terms and that Walker had served her with an eviction notice the previous Saturday.
Kolalou left the home in a tow truck she had ordered with her landlord’s credit card, while the police continued investigating Walker’s house.
The tenants, afraid for the tow truck driver’s life, exchanged contact with him before the two left. Briefly, the driver told the tenants that Kolalou had dumped a large plastic bag in a can at a beach near the home and gave them the location.
The tenants relayed that information to the police, who immediately went to the scene, retrieved the garbage can, and found rugs full of blood. The tow driver told the police Kolalou had pulled a knife on him and threatened him.
Brendan Deenihan, Chicago Police Chief, said that because of the swift communication between the tenants and the tow driver, authorities got to the scene quickly and apprehended Kolalou for threatening the driver with a knife.
After a thorough search of the Walker house, police charged Kolalou with her landlord’s murder.
The police found blood inside Walker’s bedroom, several bloody knives, and Walker’s body parts in the freezer. Authorities believe Kolalou killed and dismembered Walker’s body with the bloody knives found in the house.
According to Police Chief Deenihan, the eviction notice that Walker served to Kolalou on Saturday might have contributed to the murder as he speculated that it might have made her angry and led her to commit the murder.
Kolalou is facing several charges, including capital murder, concealing a murder, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Chief Deenihan said that she had refused to cooperate with the investigation and had not spoken to the police.
Kolalou has a criminal history of misdemeanor offenses; earlier this year, the police charged her with battery.