Like most people, Kenny Eshenbaugh was more than happy to store his friend’s icebox when his electricity had been cut off to ensure his meat wouldn’t spoil.
However, Mr Eshenbaugh’s wife was suspicious as to why a freezer full of meat would need a padlock, and after five days the couple busted it open.
Inside, they found a human corpse dismembered and packed into several plastic bags.
Arturo Novoa, 31, and his girlfriend Katrina Layton, 34, were then arrested in their Ohio home last Sunday, with authorities suspecting the victim was Novoa’s former girlfriend Shannon Graves.
Tests confirmed their suspicions, and the remains were identified as Ms Graves, 29, who vanished in February under mysterious circumstances.
Police documents say Layton moved into Novoa’s apartment shortly after Ms Graves went missing, and then promptly took her identity, using her credit cards, mobile phone, car and even her pet.
“Basically, Ms Layton moved in with Mr Novoa and started living her life,” prosecutor Dana Lantz told the New York Daily News.
“She didn’t hold herself out to be Shannon, she just lived her life, using her phone, caring for her dog.”
Ms Graves’ sister Debbie told WKBN her family had been worried about her when she started missing important family commitments like her birthday, Easter and Father’s Day.
Arturo Novoa and his girlfriend Katrina Layton.
She said it was unlike her sister to not contact her family for that long, so she was added to the Ohio Attorney General’s Missing Persons’ website earlier this month.
The couple are jailed on corpse-abuse charges with a $1 million bond and are yet to hire any attorneys.
Murder charges haven’t been filed yet because a cause of death is yet to be determined, but Layton has been charged with obstruction of justice.
Layton told police she had purchased the freezer in July and supplied the extension cord used at Novoa’s apartment.
