Woman Charged With Hiding Corpse Over Body Parts Found in Refrigerator

A Brooklyn woman was charged this week with concealing a human corpse after the police found a head and other body parts in garbage bags stuffed in her refrigerator, officials said on Friday.

The remains were discovered by officers responding to a tip from someone who said they had seen what looked like a human head in a black bag in the refrigerator at the apartment of the woman, Heather Stines, according to court records.

Ms. Stines was alone at the apartment, in the East Flatbush section, when the officers arrived just after 7 p.m. Monday, court records show. The refrigerator was taped shut at the time, Joseph E. Kenny, the Police Department’s chief of detectives, told reporters on Tuesday. Ms. Stines pleaded with the officers not to open it, according to a police report.

After the grisly discovery, Ms. Stines told the officers the body parts had been in the refrigerator for several months and belonged to a man her husband had killed during a dispute in September, according to the police report. She told the police she had not witnessed the killing, the report says.

The police identified the victim as Kawsheen Gelzer, records show. The New York City medical examiner’s office had not announced a cause of death as of Friday.

Ms. Stines was evaluated at a hospital after being taken into custody on Monday, Chief Kenny said. She had open warrants related to shoplifting and bail-jumping charges, court records show. She pleaded not guilty at an arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court late Thursday night, according to a spokeswoman for the Brooklyn district attorney’s office.