Chicago police ‘find teen’s body in freezer’ of man accused of stabbing contractor to death with screwdriver

The body was found while investigators were looking at the home of a suspect in a separate murder case

A body of a teenager was discovered in a murder suspect’s home (Chicago Police Department)

While investigating a 33-year-old suspect charged with murdering a 69-year-old HVAC contractor to death in broad daylight, authorities say they found a teenager’s body in the suspect’s freezer.

The two deaths are linked by one man, according to authorities: Brandon Sanders.

According to ABC 7 Chicago, during an investigation of the suspect’s home, police discovered a “teenager’s body in the freezer.” The victim was identified as 18-year-old Iman Al-Sarraj.

Mr Sanders has not been charged with the murder of Al-Sarraj, the Chicago Sun Times reported.

“My heart is shattered in a million pieces,” Al-Sarraj’s father told the Sun Times. “I will never, ever have a normal life, especially after I saw my daughter’s face and what the monster did to her.”

Mr Sanders has been charged in another case, however.

Rasim Katanic was stabbed on 12 May around 4.40pm as he was working on a walk-in cooler compressor on the rooftop of a restaurant in West Ridge, Illinois. More than a month later, on 29 June, Mr Sanders, of Evanston, Illinois, was arrested for the fatal stabbing, according to the charge release.

Mr Sanders faces charges of first-degree murder, armed robbery and residential burglary; he appeared in court on Tuesday.

“My dad was slaughtered,” Aida Sutardjo, Katanic’s daughter, told ABC 7.

“This is not was not the first time my dad was on that roof. This has been my dad’s long-term client for 10-plus years,” she told the outlet. “He probably didn’t think my dad was working. He probably did not see or assume anybody was working on that roof, encountered my dad, and then, I think, we know what happened.”

According to the Tribune, the prosecution said after stabbing Katanic in the neck and head, Mr Sanders stole his wallet, keys and a screwdriver. The tool was used to unscrew and remove a skylight to a neighboring apartment building to force his way inside, the state argued.

But Mr Sanders wasn’t done with his “crime spree,” as the prosecutors called it. Once he made his way inside Loyola graduates’ apartment, they continued, Sanders shaved in the bathroom, removed his own clothes and grabbed something new to wear—along with three watches—before leaving.

When he swapped clothes, he seemed to have forgotten his wallet and ID cards, which the graduate students found the next day mixed with the clothes and a water bottle. DNA on the water bottle matched Sanders’, they said. Furthermore, video footage captured Sanders leaving the building wearing the stolen clothes. The building’s mailbox also had the Katanic’s screwdriver sitting on top of it.

Prosecutors noted Mr Sanders’ unusual behaviour earlier that day. He had apparently visited a nearby furniture store, where his relatives work. The 33-year-old reportedly told the business owner that they didn’t have to pay rent anymore because his landlord was “on the roof dead and that he took care of that,” Assistant State’s Attorney Kathryn Morrissey said. It’s unclear whether Katanic was actully the landlord.

Two hours before Katanic’s death, according to the state, Mr Sanders entered a bank and called the FBI’s national threat operation center to report “a plot to overthrow the government,” and gave his name and address.

Mr Sanders’ attorney cited his possible mental health issues and said there was no video evidence linking her client directly to Katanic’s stabbing. Mr Sanders was denied bail.

In August 2019, the suspect was also charged in Montana, facing counts of human trafficking and aggravated promotion of prostitution among others.