Tenant who received eviction notice charged with murder after landlord’s remains found in freezer

Police have confirmed that a tenant who was residing at West Ridge boarding house in Chicago has been charged with murder.

Brendan Deenihan, who is chief detective, confirmed that Sandra Kolalou has been charged with the murder of her landlord Frances Walker, along with the additional charge of concealment of a homicide.

Block Club Chicago reported that Walker’s body was found on Monday in a residence in the 5900 block of North Washtenaw Avenue, as per the Cook County medical examiner’s office and Chicago police.

Deenihan believes that Walker had served Kolalou with a notice of eviction “as recently as Saturday.” Deenihan then believes that Kolalou then murdered walker, before dismembering her body and then storing it in a freezer. Police said that Kolalou then tried to dispose of the body at Rogers Park beach. Deenihan believes that “butcher knives” where the most likely murder weapon.

Kolalou rented a tow truck on Walker’s credit card to transport Walker’s body to the beach. Kolalou reportedly pulled a knife on the tow truck driver, and was charged with aggravated assault for this action, police confirmed.

Deenihan said that other tenants played a big role in Kolalou’s address by leading officers to both Walker’s body, and also bloody towels.

Walker’s other tenants, many of whom were scared of Kolalou, heard screaming inside the building around 2:30 am on Monday and immediately reached out to Walker to see if she was ok.

“There had been arguments before with [Kolalou] and other people in the residence,” Deenihan said. “The tenants immediately in the morning, started to … try to figure out what was wrong.”

The tenants were unable to reach Walker, however some received texts sent from her phone, Deenihan said.

“It appears, from what we know now, that [Kolalou] was sending texts from the victim’s phone and not answering it,” Deenihan said.

Denihan said that after being unable to contact Walker, the tenants phoned police and asked for a welfare check.

“I truly want to thank those tenants for their tenacity on realizing that something is definitely wrong, which led to the arrest,” Deenihan said.