A Chicago woman who left her dead mother’s body in a freezer for nearly two years has been charged in U.S. District Court with using her mom’s stolen identity to collect tens of thousands of dollars in Social Security checks and food program benefits.
Eva Bratcher, 72, was charged in an indictment initially filed under seal last month with two fraud counts related to the theft of more than $20,000 in benefits intended for her elderly mother, who died in 2021. The indictment was announced by the U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday as part of a nationwide crackdown on Social Security fraud.
“Bratcher allegedly concealed her mother’s body in a deep freezer in her garage for two years,” the DOJ said in a news release. “During those two years, Bratcher assumed her mother’s identity, collected her mother’s SSA benefits, and used her mother’s SNAP benefits. The defendant also allegedly used an alternative Social Security Number to steal additional SNAP benefits to which she was not entitled.”
Bratcher is scheduled to make her first court appearance at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse on Thursday. The court docket did not list a lawyer for her.
The federal charges come more than three years after Bratcher was charged in Cook County with concealing a death or moving a body and possessing a fake identity card related to her mother’s death.
According to prosecutors in that case, Bratcher noted on a house calendar that her 96-year-old mother, Regina Michalski, died in the home they shared in the 5500 block of West Melrose Street on March 4, 2021. One week later, she bought a new freezer and placed her mother’s body in it. Police found the receipt for the freezer in Bratcher’s home.
The body wasn’t found until January 2023 after a relative became suspicious and called Chicago police, the Tribune reported. At the time of her arrest, Bratcher, who is a U.S. Army veteran and was born in Poland, possessed at least one fake identification, which had her picture but her mother’s name, prosecutors said at the time. Autopsy results were inconclusive.
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Bratcher, who had previous convictions for forgery, violation of an order of protection, and domestic battery, pleaded guilty in August 2023 to concealing her mother’s death and was sentenced to 213 days in jail, with time served, court records show.