Neighbor reveals Heather Stines said ‘I’m going to jail' as cops discovered 'taped refrigerator' with severed head, body parts

Warning: This article contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some, readers’ discretion advised.

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK: A Brooklyn woman was detained by police after a decapitated and dismembered man’s body was found in her refrigerator and freezer. She was also overheard by a neighbor saying she was going to jail as cops searched her apartment.

45-year-old Heather Stines was detained on Monday, January 22, after cops received a call-in tip about a possible body in the Flatbush residence. 

NYPD confirmed they had received a call to visit the Brooklyn residence on Nostrand Avenue at around 7.10 pm on Monday. Upon arrival, the officers reported seeing an "unconscious and unresponsive, unidentified male."  According to a statement by NYPD, "EMS responded and pronounced the aided deceased on the scene," as per New York Daily News.

After the discovery of the dead male, officers then found the body parts in the freezer.

“During the course of the patrol’s investigation, they came across some body parts in the freezer. At this point we’re trying to identify that person," said NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny at a news briefing.

What did the neighbors say? 

A neighbor Germaine Roberts told the Daily News, "She was saying, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to jail." Roberts, 53, watched as investigators photographed the scene, and said, "They wouldn’t let her in the apartment.”

“From my kitchen, I can see into her kitchen and I could see them taking the photos with the forensic light,” she added and continued, “I could see them when they put the markers.”

According to court documents, Stines, who has a history of minor offenses, was detained after stealing beverages and COVID-19 tests from the same Flatbush drugstore many months apart, along with a "manscape electronic" device from a Target shop.

According to a source, the victim's body needs to thaw before an autopsy can be performed. The city medical examiner will determine how the man died.

The insider stated that authorities have an idea of the victim's identity and that the body parts might have been kept in the flat for a year or longer.

Police officials reveal refrigerator was taped-up

Kenny also said at a news briefing, "The refrigerator was taped up. They were trying to hole up, I guess, the smell inside.”

Stines’ brother-in-law Timothy McGee said he didn’t believe she was responsible for the dismemberment.

"She does not have it in her to do something like this. It’s a lot of commitment,” said McGee, whose brother Nicholas McGee is married to Stines.

57-year-old McGee said he and his brother moved to New York with their wives after their mother died in 2014, going on to spend years in shelters.

“We were at the Third St. Men’s Shelter downtown. My wife was in the White Plains shelter, but Heather was put in [the] Tillary St. Women’s Shelter because she used to fight with everyone at the other shelter.”

McGee last spoke to his brother, who is incarcerated, around Christmas. "He seemed fine and he told me that his wife was holding the fort. He does not know what’s happening here."

"I will have to break the news to him because he thinks he’s coming back to a home, his wife,” the brother added. “But he does not know it has all turned into a crime scene,” he said.

Law enforcement officials claimed that Stines's residence was dirty and she battled drug addiction. The discovery shook the others who lived in the same building as her.

"I would see different people going in and out of her apartment. That’s every day,” said May Paige, 35. “I’m just surprised they found a body in there.”

“It’s crazy, you watch ‘Dateline’ and then this happens in this building,” said a neighbor named Monica. 

Neither Stines nor anyone else has been charged in connection with the corpse.