A tenant of a boarding house (Chicago) has been charged with the murder of her landlord.
Sandra Kolalou, 36, is being held without bond for the murder of 63-year-old Francis Walker, the suspect’s landlord.
Neighbors told police that sometime around 2:30 AM Monday, they heard screaming. “Other tenants heard loud bangs and the victim and the defendant arguing on the first floor,” said Assistant State’s Attorney Anne McCord Rodgers. “The basement tenant heard the defendant screaming and what sounded like a dish breaking,” she added. Some tenants tried texting and calling the landlord. Some received bizarre texts from Walker’s phone stating that Kolalou would care of her dog and that anyone moving out should give their keys to Kolalou.
“The other tenants were afraid. The suspect had recently called a tow truck and carried a heavy bag out to the tow truck,” said Chief of Detectives Brendan Deenihan.
Sometime between 6 and 7 PM that night, after not seeing or being able to communicate with their landlord all day, tenants called the police and reported the landlord as missing. Police arriving at the scene witnessed the suspect carrying garbage bags away from the building. She permitted them to search her room, and when nothing was found, she was allowed to leave in a tow truck she had called. The tow truck driver took her and the trash bags to Foster Avenue Beach, where she deposited the trash bags into a trash can before having her car towed to a nearby garage.
The tow truck driver tells police that he towed the car to several repair facilities that wouldn’t take the car. He says the suspect attempted to pay him with the victim’s credit card. She became agitated when he wouldn’t take her to another garage and pulled a knife. He used a stick to defend himself until the police arrived.
The driver told the police about the garbage bags and provided them with the location of the trash can. Police held the suspect for pulling a knife on the driver.
Detectives located the trash can and found bloody rags inside the garbage bags. This provided enough evidence to search the landlord’s residence, where they found human remains in a freezer. Authorities said they found a head and severed limbs inside the freezer, determined to belong to Walker. Her torso, however, remains missing, prosecutors said.”In the first-floor kitchen freezer, police discovered the victim’s severed head, dismembered arms, and dismembere
`d legs,” Rodgers said. “The victim’s torso has not been located at this time.”
The suspected motive for the murder is that the landlord had served the tenant with an eviction notice earlier that day. Kolalou has been charged with first-degree murder and concealment of a homicide.
