After a missing Ohio woman’s body was found locked in a freezer, police arrested her boyfriend and his new lover, who they say took the dead woman’s identity, used her credit cards and even took care of her dog, according to KTLA sister station WJW in Cleveland.
Authorities believe 31-year-old Arturo Novoa and 34-year-old Katrina Layton hid the body of 28-year-old Shannon Graves, who was last seen in February, inside the basement of a home in Campbell owned by Novoa’s friend.
Novoa initially convinced the friend to take the freezer after claiming he had lost power, but the friend and his wife became suspicious and looked inside over the weekend, according to the Associated Press, and called 911 after making the grisly discovery.
Just two weeks after Graves disappeared, Layton moved in to Graves’ apartment and “basically assumed her life and her belongings,” Youngstown City Prosecutor Dana Lance told WKBN.
No murder charges have yet been filed pending the outcome of an autopsy on Graves’ body.
Novoa and Layton are both being held on $1 million bond and face charges of corpse abuse.
