Mississippi woman accused of putting dead boyfriend’s body in trash can

Christy Lee Zarrella
Christy Lee Zarrella
Christy Lee Zarrella

GULFPORT, Miss.  (AP) — A Mississippi woman is accused of cutting a pacemaker out of her dead boyfriend’s chest and then stuffing his body in a trash can.

The Sun Herald reports that 63-year-old Christy Lee Zarrella had a preliminary hearing Wednesday on charges of tampering with evidence, failure to report a death and desecration of a corpse.

The paper says the decomposing remains of 87-year-old Edward A. Miller were found Oct. 22 in the back yard of a home Miller and Zarrella shared. Miller had been reported missing by a friend two weeks earlier.

Quoting a police affidavit, the newspaper reports that Zarrella told investigators Miller died of natural causes and she panicked and put his body in a trash can. The affidavit said some kind of tool was used to clip the wires off Miller’s pacemaker.