Landlord found dismembered in freezer was trying to evict suspect, police say

CHICAGO — Police have released new details as they investigate the murder of a woman who was found inside a freezer on her own property.

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Sandra Kolalou, 36, was charged with first-degree murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and concealing a homicidal death, WMAQ reported. Kolalou had been renting a room in the home where the body of her landlord was found.

Police told WFLD that Kolalu used “large butcher knives” to dismember the body of her landlord before putting the body parts in a freezer.

A tenant reported the building’s owner, Frances Walker, missing on Tuesday night. When police arrived, they found human remains in the freezer, WLS reported. The Cook County Medical Examiner identified the remains as belonging to Walker.

Police said that Walker used her property as a boarding house and that Kolalou was one of her tenants. When she was killed, Walker had begun the process of evicting Kolalou from the room she was renting, police told WMAQ.

“That very well could possibly be what escalated this into the defendant becoming extremely angry and committing this horrific act,” Chicago Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan told WLS.

Deenihan said that officers believe that Walker was killed in her bedroom and then dismembered on the first floor of the home, WLS reported.

Walker was last seen on Sunday walking through the neighborhood, and neighbors reported hearing screaming inside the house early Monday, police told the Chicago Sun-Times.

“The residents were very cooperative,” Deenihan told WFLD. “When they heard the scream, when they woke up in the morning, they immediately started texting the victim … started calling the victim. The victim didn’t answer. There were some texts that were sent back from the victim’s phone. It appears from what we know now that the defendant was sending texts from the victim’s phone and not answering it.”

Detectives said that Kolalou was seen dragging a large plastic bag to a tow truck, and then dumping it in a garbage can at Foster Beach. Kolalou was arrested after allegedly threatening the tow truck driver with a knife, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Friends and family described Walker as a devoted member of her church community, and said she played the piano at the Evanston School of Ballet, WMAQ reported.

“She was a really good person,” Arnold Walker, the victim’s brother, told WLS. “Nobody deserves what happened to her.”

Court records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show that Kolalou has a history of criminal charges for low-level violent crimes, and was most recently arrested in January for an incident where she was found not guilty of misdemeanor battery.

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