A 19-year-old male was charged Tuesday after police found a woman’s body with a shoelace around her neck in the bed of a pickup truck he had just crashed.
Stephen Freeman was involved in a minor fender bender crash on Common and Hayes in Roseville, Michigan, at around 2 p.m. on October 27, according to police via Fox 2. However, he fled the scene shortly after.
As officers examined the vehicle Freeman was driving, they found the body of Gabrielle Seitz, 62, in the truck bed. Freeman was later arrested Saturday in Waterford — approximately a 50-minute drive west of Roseville.
The 19-year-old is described as transient but has family living in Lexington in Sanilac County. He also has relatives where he was arrested in Waterford, WXYZ reported.
The cause of Seitz’s death has not been determined yet, but investigators presume Seitz was murdered. Macomb County Assistant Prosecutor Steve Fox says a shoelace was found around her neck, which had “obvious signs of strangulation,” the Detroit Free Press reported.
Although Seitz’s family members say that she and Freeman did not know each other prior, they were becoming worried for her safety.
“She was just telling everyone ‘I want to get out of here,'” her son, Justin Omans, told WXYZ.
Omans says he is “deeply heartbroken” and that his mother was the “sweetest, friendliest and funniest person to be around.”
“Unfortunately, she was taken from this world too soon,” he wrote on a GoFundMe page he organized to help pay for her funeral.
Freeman is charged with one count of concealing the death of an individual and receiving and concealing stolen property. Both charges come with a five-year sentence if convicted. He may face additional charges.
Freeman is being held on a $75,000 bond and must wear a GPS tether if released, ClickOnDetroit reported.
You can follow Ethan Letkeman on Twitter at @EthanLetkeman.
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