Man's Body Left 'Folded' Inside Freezer For A Week After Being Duct-Taped, Strangled

A man's dead body was found inside a chest freezer in the basement of a Massachusetts home.

Michael Burke and Samantha Perry, both aged 38, are accused of restraining the victim, holding him against his will and leaving his dead body in the freezer a week before the remains were found.

Perry and Burke, who are in a relationship, told cops that it was a third person who killed the victim. They also said the third person pointed a gun at them and forced them to take part in the crime, Masslive.com reported Monday.

The victim was living with the pair in their Lowell home at the time, according to WCVB Channel 5 Boston.

The accused couple admitted to attacking the victim and then tying him up to a chair and covering his mouth with duct tape on Nov. 23.

"(Perry and Burke) forced (the victim) into a wooden chair and then bound him, binding his arms, body and mouth with wire, a green rope, an orange tie down strap and gray duct tape," a court document stated.

They said the third person strangled the victim to death with a rope.

"(The other person) attacked the bound (victim), wrapped the green rope around (his) neck and strangled him until he was apparently deceased," according to Perry's account included in court documents.

Cops found the body while conducting a welfare check requested by the victim's family members. The family said they last saw the victim before Thanksgiving and that he did not turn up for Thanksgiving dinner either.

When investigators arrived at Perry and Burke's residence, the woman went back and forth on whether she would grant them entry into her house.

Perry eventually denied them entry but allowed them to conduct a search of the home's exterior. Cops then peered through a basement window and found a chair that had duct tape wrapped around it.

Cops later returned with a search warrant and found the house "heavily cluttered with many items and debris throughout the premises," a police report said, according to CBS News. They found two chairs wrapped with duct tape inside the house and eventually found the victim's body in the freezer.

The victim was described as a "white male shoved into a freezer headfirst, with the back and upper torso visible," and "the body appeared to have been folded over and compacted to fit into the freezer," the report said.

Burke and Perry were arraigned on kidnapping charges. They pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 14 for further proceedings. The charges against them may be upgraded.

Further details about a third suspect involved in the victim's death were not revealed.