Erika Kraus-Breslin, 85, was asphyxiated, during which time she suffered neck compressions, a law enforcement source told InsideEdition.com.
The death of a woman, whose grandson kept her decomposing body wrapped in garbage bags for months in their New York home, has been ruled a homicide, police said.
Erika Kraus-Breslin, 85, was asphyxiated, during which time she suffered neck compressions, a law enforcement source told InsideEdition.com.
Kraus-Breslin was found wrapped in 16 garbage bags in the corner of her Ridgewood, Queens, home on October 5, officials said.
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Her grandson, 30-year-old Christopher Fuhrer, told police that his grandmother had died on May 21, but he didn’t report her death because he didn’t want to be kicked out of her home, prosecutors said.
Instead, Fuhrer put her body into garbage bags, poured paint inside to cover the smell and sprayed the upstairs room with Febreze, the New York Daily News reported.
Police responded to Kraus-Breslin's home on October 5 to conduct a wellness check on the elderly woman, after an out-of-state family member asked that she be looked in on.
Cops were met at her door by Fuhrer, who led them to the body, cops said.
Kraus-Breslin had taken in her grandson when he was 17 years old and had nowhere else to go, loved ones told the Daily News.
“He had no place to go. He needs me,” she reportedly told her friends.
She left behind two daughters, a granddaughter and Fuhrer.
Fuhrer was charged with not reporting a death, with improper burial and concealment of a human corpse.
No one has been charged with Kraus-Breslin’s killing and the investigation is ongoing, officials said.
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