Body found in freezer in Lowell home; Man and woman charged with kidnapping
By Courtney Cole, WBZ-TV
LOWELL – Two people accused of kidnapping a man and holding him inside their Lowell home are being held without bail.
Michael Burke, 35, of Lowell, and Samantha Perry, 36, of Manchester, New Hampshire, had their first appearance Monday before a judge at the Lowell District Courthouse.
The man was found dead inside the Coburn Street home and the investigation into his death is still ongoing.
The spokesperson for the Middlesex District Attorney's Office told WBZ they are waiting for the medical examiner to positively identify the victim before they release his name.
Authorities are calling the man's death suspicious, but during Monday's arraignment the two were not charged with murder.
Michael Burke and Samantha Perry are charged with kidnapping, but those charges could be upgraded. As of this weekend, the medical examiner was still trying to determine a cause of death.
On Friday, Lowell police followed up on a well-being check. That's when they found a 37-year-old Lowell man dead inside the home.
The preliminary investigation showed that man was held against his will.
In the police report released Monday, WBZ learned new details about the night the victim's body was found at the home on Coburn Street.
On Thursday, December 1st, police say when they arrived at the Lowell home, Samantha Perry was going back-and-forth about whether she was going to allow them to come inside the home to conduct a search.
Ultimately, she didn't allow them inside the residence. But she did give them permission to search the exterior of the home.
That's when police spotted a chair, wrapped several times with duct tape, through the basement window.
Once police obtained a warrant to search the home, they noted that the "house appeared heavily cluttered with many items and debris throughout the premises."
When the police got to the basement, they found the same chair they saw through the basement window.
The chair was partially broken with duct tape wrapped around different parts, along with a nylon cord tied to one of the chair's legs.
They also found a freezer in the basement and described a "white male shoved into a freezer headfirst, with the back and upper torso visible." The report continues with, "the body appeared to have been folded over and compacted to fit into the freezer."
Stanley Norkunas, the attorney representing Burke, said his client has entered a 'not guilty' plea to those charges.
"It's the very beginning of what looks like a complex situation that arose here in Lowell," Norkunas said following the arraignment.
Burke and Perry admitted to detectives playing a role in binding the victim to the wooden chair. At the conclusion of the police report it's noted that the detective on the case says Burke and Perry "worked in concert and with force to confine the victim against his will" in a way that led directly to his death and that the victim's body was in the freezer for "over a week."
But they both told authorities there is another person involved, whose name is redacted in the report, that attacked the victim and forced them to take those actions.
"I don't know that there is a murder at this point and time. My understanding is that there's a body of a gentleman being looked at by the medical examiner," Norkunas said.
Burke and Perry will appear in court again next Wednesday- for a dangerousness hearing.
According to the Middlesex District Attorney's office, the incident appears to be isolated.