A woman accused of the grisly slaying and dismemberment of her 61-year-old tenant told police that she “flipped” during what she claimed was an argument over the victim’s refusal to move out.
Lisa Gonzales, 47, faces a single charge of murder in the death of her tenant, Margaret “Maggie” Rose Mamer, in the Mission District.
Authorities believe Gonzales used a hacksaw to dismember Mamer, who prosecutors say had been beaten and stabbed to death, according to court documents.
Gonzales is then alleged to have put Mamer’s body parts in a bag and sealed them into a plastic storage bin. Police found the decaying remains Saturday at 255 14th Street, when they came to look for the missing woman.
District Attorney George Gascon on Wednesday called the case “concerning” given the troubling details that have come to light, but declined to go into details.
According to a statement of facts prepared by prosecutors, when questioned about what occurred, Gonzales told police she “flipped” after the two quarreled over Mamer’s refusal to move out.
Prosecutors said that since last August, Mamer was paying $400 a month to rent a room in Gonzalez home at Gonzales took Mamer after she fell on hard times and was evicted last year.
Local
But Gonzales soon became “frustrated” with Mamer, according to a statement of facts by prosecutors in the case, when Gonzales’ personal property started to turn up broken or missing late last year.
Gonzales told Mamer to move by the middle of April or face eviction, but she remained.
According to prosecutors, on midday on May 15, the defendant told her daughter, who had come home for lunch, not to go into the bathroom.
That night, the daughter recalled smelling something like vinegar from the bathroom. The next day, she heard what sounded like “sawing” and later smelled the smell of rotten eggs in that bathroom, the prosecutors’ statement said.
When she asked her mother where Mamer was, the court document says, Gonzales “responded that the victim left,‘but not the way she should have.’’’
She would not go into details, according to the prosecutors’ account.
After that, prosecutors allege that the defendant’s daughter saw a hacksaw under a sink. She later went to authorities, saying she suspected someone had been killed in her home.
On Saturday, police who found the body also questioned Gonzales about what had happened.
She told them, prosecutors say, that the two had quarreled over Mamer’s refusal to move out.
Although Gonzales said she did not have a specific memory of what occurred next, she told investigators “probably nothing good.“
Prosecutors say that Gonzales has a violent history, having been convicted of assault of a co-worker in 2004. She was alleged to have attacked the victim from behind with a metal object, leaving her with a fractured jaw and shattered teeth.
Gonzales was due in court for arraignment Wednesday but was under observation and unable to appear in court.
The judge ordered her held without bail and is set to return to court Friday for arraignment. Her attorney, Deputy Public Defender Alex Lillian, declined to comment about the case.
