Regina Michalski, who was found dead in 2023 in a freezer in the 5500 block of West Melrose Street on Chicago’s Northwest Side.
Eva Bratcher, 72, has been indicted in U.S, according to the Chicago Tribune. District Court on two fraud counts tied to more than $20,000 in Social Security and food assistance benefits that prosecutors say were obtained after her mother’s death in 2021. The report states that according to federal prosecutors, Bratcher’s 96-year-old mother, Regina Michalski, died on March 4, 2021, at the Chicago home the two women shared. The body remained undiscovered until January 2023, when a relative became suspicious and contacted Chicago police.
The indictment was initially filed under seal in August and was announced Tuesday by the U.S. A Chicago case involving an elderly woman’s death has taken a new turn in federal court, with prosecutors alleging that her daughter concealed her mother’s body in a garage freezer for nearly two years while continuing to collect government benefits in her name. Department of Justice as part of a nationwide enforcement effort targeting Social Security fraud. Authorities allege that about a week later, Bratcher purchased a new freezer and placed her mother’s body inside it. Investigators later found the freezer receipt at the residence.
Earlier case ended in guilty plea
She later pleaded guilty in August 2023 to concealing her mother’s death and received a sentence of 213 days in jail, with credit for time already served.
Bratcher had recorded her mother’s death on a calendar at the home, according to court records. The federal charges follow a state prosecution stemming from the discovery of Michalski’s body.