Pennsylvania man, 32, 'stabbed his father to death, dismembered the body and kept head in the freezer’ before telling police he thought it was a ‘doll’
Lancaster Police charged Donald Meshey Jr. with homicide after discovering his father's severed head his freezer and a his dismembered corpse in his home.
A Pennsylvania man faces homicide charges after police found his father's severed head on a dinner plate in a freezer at his home, and parts of his dismembered body all over the house.
Donald Meshey Jr., 32, allegedly stabbed father Donald Meshey, 67, to death before cutting up the body.
After being arrested, police say he told them that he had discovered a 'cadaver doll' which looked and sounded like his father, and attacked it with a knife.
Police initially came to Meshey Jr.'s home - a small apartment building near the central part of Lancaster - at around 8.50am Wednesday after a phone call from a woman asking for a welfare check on a relative, the department reported.
She allegedly told police in the call that Meshey Jr. had informed her he had found what he told her was a 'cadaver' in one of the bedrooms of his home and that there was a severed head in his freezer.
When an officer arrived on the scene, the woman told them she had personally checked inside Meshey Jr.'s home, and had seen what she believed to be the head of one of her family members in the freezer.
Police were initially called to Meshey Jr.'s home by a relative who was concerned for his mental health
After the officer knocked on the door, police say Meshey Jr. took them into his kitchen, removed the head from the freezer and presented it to the officer on a white dinner plate, WGAL reported.
The officer then called for back-up.
Meshey Jr. was then brought to the Lancaster City Police Station, where officers say he told detectives that he had found a 'cadaver doll' that 'looked and sounded like his father' in his father's bedroom.
Cops say he admitted to then stabbing the 'cadaver doll' for 'two to three minutes' with an eight- or nine-inch knife, police said, before dismembering the body with a hand saw.
Meshey Jr. then allegedly put his father's severed arms, legs and head in garbage bags and placed them in his basement.
He later retrieved the head Wednesday morning, and placed it in his freezer, police say.
Officers say they discovered that Meshey Jr. had also placed his father's torso in a garbage bag and put it in a footlocker before transporting it to his car in a hand truck.
'You can't imagine running into something like this,' Lancaster Police Capt. Michael Winter told the WGAL.
'Obviously, it's a traumatic experience for anyone to experience, including police officers, so yeah, it's a horrific scene.'
The Lancaster County coroner confirmed that Meshey Sr. died from multiple stab wounds.
In addition to criminal homicide, Meshey Jr. is charged with abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence. He is currently being held for arraignment.