Saturday 11 June 2022 07:01 PM CO woman, 82, found dead in trash bag and stuffed in manhole at her home 4 ... trends now
A Colorado woman's son has been charged with murder after her body was found inside a trash bag and stuffed in a manhole at her home four years after she went missing.
Sylvia Frens, 82 of Grand Junction, was reported missing on May 29, 2018, by 'concerned family members,' the Grand Junction Police Department said in a statement.
Later that year, her son, Richard Vandervelde, 54 - who lived with her at the time - told them she had taken off to California with a friend. With no new address set up and no social media activities, police determined she was dead, but kept the investigation into her disappearance open.
On Wednesday, police announced that detectives obtained a warrant to search the home in March 2022 after they new homeowners reported finding a trash bag in a manhole. They discovered a body had been stuffed into the bag.
Using DNA testing, they were able to confirm Frens' identity and said she died from a blunt force trauma to the head.
Her son was arrested in Florida on May 19 and was charged with six felonies and one misdemeanor and extradited to the Mesa County Jail. He has been charged with first-degree murder, tampering with a deceased human body, identity fraud, theft of $5,000 to $20,000, motor vehicle theft, and abuse of a corpse, and crimes against an at-risk adult.
Sylvia Frens, 82 of Grand Junction, was reported missing on May 29, 2018, and her body wasn't found on until March 2022
Her son Richard Vandervalde, 54, was arrested in Florida and charged with murder and tampering with human remains in May 2022. He was initially interviewed by police in 2018 after being arrested for a traffic violation. He told police he did not murder his mother and she had authorized him to use her credit card and car. He had also taken $10,000 from her bank account. He was released after police said they couldn't keep him for traffic violations
The search for Frens began when her daughter Sharon told police she had been trying to contact her and her brother, unsuccessfully, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reported.
The few times she had met with her brother - who she had not seen in 12 to 15 years - they always met outside the house.
When police arrived to the residence, they found all the
