A Pennsylvania man has freed up some freezer space this week after treating cops to an especially gruesome sight: his father’s iced head on a platter.
Donald Lawrence Meshey Jr., 32, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of stabbing and dismembering dad Donald Mesher Sr., 67, after a female relative asked police to check on the Lancaster apartment the two men shared.
The woman said Meshey had told her her there was a “cadaver” in one of the beds and a “head” stored in the freezer, the Lancaster Bureau of Police said in a statement.
A responding officer was greeted by Meshey at the threshold to the apartment and led through to the “horrific scene” inside.
(Lancaster Bureau of Police)
“Meshey escorted the officer inside the residence and took the officer to the kitchen, where he proceeded to remove what appeared to be a human head from the freezer to show the officer,” the police statement said.
During questioning, Meshey told detectives he had found what he described as a “cadaver doll” in his father’s bedroom that “looked and sounded like his father.”
He admitted to stabbing the “cadaver doll” for two to three minutes with a knife before dismembering the body, police said.
An autopsy carried out early Thursday identified the victim as Meshey’s father, LancasterOnline.com reported.
A coroner found that Meshey Sr. had died from multiple stab wounds.
Meshey Jr. cut up his father’s body with a handsaw and stuffed the remains into large garbage bags before storing them in the basement of their home, according to court documents obtained by local station WGAL.
He placed his father’s severed head on a white dinner plate and put it into a freezer on Wednesday before cops arrived, police said in an affidavit.
Meshey said he had moved his father’s torso into a 2007 Lincoln Town Car parked outside the apartment, the affidavit states.
“You can’t imagine running into something like this,” Lancaster police Capt. Michael Winter told WGAL. “Obviously, it’s a traumatic experience for anyone to experience, including police officers, so yeah, it’s a horrific scene.”
Meshey has been charged with criminal homicide, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence.