Houston woman charged with killing landlord, hiding body, collecting rent from other tenants

A Texas lady, who claimed that her lacking Houston landlord faked his demise and ran away to Africa two years in the past, has been arrested on homicide and theft costs.

Pamela Ann Merritt, 43, allegedly killed Colin Kerdachi, 78, confessed to associates, hid the physique underneath stairs for months and informed police after they confirmed up that the stays belonged to a lifeless canine, in keeping with court docket paperwork.

Individuals reported Kerdachi lacking in February 2021 after a winter storm and deep freeze gripped town and induced widespread energy outages.

The arrest comes after the invention of the lacking man’s physique led a detective to evaluation the case and sew collectively a sequence of suspicious occasions.

On Feb. 23, 2021, Joe Man, a tenant of Kerdachi’s, informed police that he got here dwelling from a protracted journey and located Kerdachi gone and Merritt inside and refusing to depart.

“He informed me that he requested her the place Mr. Colin, the owner, was, and the Defendant replied that he was lifeless and that she killed him,” a Houston detective wrote within the prison grievance after reviewing bodycam footage from the 2021 missing-person report and re-interviewing the witness.

On the time, police took Merritt to the hospital for a psychiatric analysis, in keeping with court docket filings.

However by October 2021, Merritt was again within the constructing and Kerdachi had nonetheless not been discovered.

One other tenant, Tabitha Pope, referred to as police to report a suspicious discovery – “massive swimming pools and drops of blood” within the constructing’s higher flooring, a knife within the mailbox and “a bin with blood in it in a crawl house.”

Pope had just lately moved into the constructing and informed police she was paying hire to Merritt and her boyfriend, Michael Brown, who has been charged with proof tampering.

In accordance with Pope, Merritt and Brown informed her conflicting tales in regards to the constructing’s proprietor: one was that he was lacking, the opposite was that he died within the hospital.

Suspicious of their claims, Pope in December apparently tricked them into revealing the placement of Kerdachi’s physique by saying the invention of his stays would preserve the home out of foreclosures, in keeping with court docket paperwork.

“Two days later, on the afternoon of December 5, 2021, Michael Brown and the Defendant began speaking loudly a couple of lifeless canine underneath the again stairs,” the prison grievance alleges.

Pope referred to as police, who arrived to seek out Kerdachi’s decomposing stays and Merritt and Brown allegedly portray over a bloodstained wall on the second flooring, the grievance reads.

Police interviewed Merritt and Brown, and Merritt stated the stays belonged to “a lifeless canine,” in keeping with the grievance.

She additionally allegedly informed detectives that she thought Kardachi faked his demise and went to Africa.

Moreover, she allegedly claimed the blood round the home was “from rotten meat that she cleaned out of a fridge.”

In accordance with the grievance, Brown informed detectives that he final noticed Kerdachi in February 2021 “with a stab wound to his abdomen” however thought that he “simply left” and “most likely went to the hospital.”

An post-mortem decided that Kerdachi had been stabbed a number of occasions.

Based mostly on telephone information and different witness statements, police consider he was seemingly murdered on Feb. 15, 2021.

Police arrested Brown in March and filed costs in opposition to Merritt on Could 30, however she remained on the run till Friday, when authorities captured her with out incident.

She is at present being held on the Harris County Jail on $500,000 bond.