What to Know
- A worker was about to drop off a load of trash when he saw some remains at a garbage transfer station in the Bronx last week, police said
- Additional remains were found at a trash site in New Jersey
- The victim has been identified as 32-year-old Leondra Foster; her cause of death has not yet been determined
The 40-year-old boyfriend of a woman whose dismembered limbs were found in trash bins in New York and New Jersey last week -- her head and feet in a freezer -- has now been charged with second-degree murder in her death, officials said Thursday.
Somorie Moses was arrested over the weekend on charges of human corpse concealment and evidence tampering after authorities allegedly found the feet and head of 32-year-old Leondra Foster in his freezer.
Officials said Thursday a charge of second-degree murder had been added to the list of crimes of which he's accused. Prosecutors said he is awaiting arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court.
"We in Brooklyn will seek justice for Leondra Foster, who was so tragically and brutally murdered," Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement.
Foster's torso and leg were initially discovered Jan. 17 at the Metropolitan Transfer Station in the Bronx's Hunts Point. Over the next 24 hours, investigators tracked the movement of trash containers and found her arms, which had no hands, at a trash station in Kearny, New Jersey.
Surveillance footage and cellphone records led investigators to Moses. A cause of death for Foster has not yet been determined. Information on an attorney for Moses wasn't immediately available.
At a press briefing Wednesday, Foster's anguished family members said they were struggling to process her gruesome death.
"She always did for others before she did for herself," Foster's sister said in tears. "It's eating me up inside that he did this to her."
Foster's mother said, crying, "It's very difficult because my granddaughter looks just like her mother. And every time I look at her, I see my daughter."
Foster's sister says there were red flags about Moses, a registered sex offender with a history of arrests. She said he made death threats against Foster.
"When she got the threat that he said he would kill my niece, my sister, myself, my mom, my dad, I think he got more hard," she said.
The sister said in devastation, "No woman deserves this at all. If you're in a domestic situation, get out. This could be you, this could be anybody's mother. Anybody's sister, aunt. This could be anybody."
