Who is Eva Bratcher? Chicago woman, 69, detained for killing her mother Regina Michalski, 96, and hiding her body in freezer
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: A woman from Chicago was arrested after police found that she hid her 96-year-old mother's dead body in a freezer behind the apartment complex where they lived. The incident took place on on Monday, January 30.
During a welfare check at around 4.35 pm near the 5500 block of West Melrose Street, police discovered the body of Eva Bratcher's mother, Regina Michalski, in a freezer. Following the discovery, 69-year-old Eva Bratcher was detained, according to FOX32 Chicago.
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'My heart is broken'
Investigators have not been able to confirm as to how long Regina Michalski had been deceased. According to the neighbors, Bratcher had recently given conflicting accounts about her mother, including that she was in a nursing home in another state.
After Sabrina Watson, Eva Bratcher's daughter, who lives in Kentucky, had an "intuition" that something was wrong, police was informed and called to check on the home. "I just said, I’m calling [the police] and just having them do a welfare check," Watson said. "What could go wrong? Apparently everything. My heart is broken," she added. "I miss her very much." According to neighbors, Regina Michalski and Eva Bratcher shared the first-floor apartment in a two-flat on Melrose for years.
Eva Bratcher was arrested a dozen times
Surprisingly, Bratcher, who also went by Eva Michalski, was arrested nearly a dozen times between 1997 and 2005 and pleaded guilty in 2006 to felony counts of forgery in two cases, Cook County Court records show as seen by the outlet. She was also found guilty of misdemeanor battery for which she received a probationary term and had previously been accused of battery, assault, and retail theft.
Police records show that Eva Bratcher completed her probation sentences without complying with the conditions and pleaded guilty to breaking the terms of her release. She was then given two sentences of two years in prison, even though she had already served a sizable amount of time.
Who was Regina Michalski?
Diane Michalski, one of Regina Michalski’s grandchildren, stayed in the same apartment complex as her and Eva Bratcher. Diane Michalski said her grandmother was a Polish immigrant who spent most of her life working for Motorola. Diane Michalski told the outlet that she hadn’t seen her grandmother in 20 years.
"I remember being a kid, and she’d bring some work home and show me the little technology and all the little intricate details that she had to do for her job," Diane Michalski said. "I mean, if you want to talk about women in STEM, she was it."
