AVERY COUNTY, NC (WBTV / Gray News) – A janitor was charged with the murder of a 70-year-old woman who was found buried in concrete in the basement of a house in Avery County, North Carolina.
Elizabeth Katherine Carserino, also known as Elizabeth Freeman, was taken into custody Saturday by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office on pending Avery County’s arrest warrants for identity theft, vehicle theft, and money card theft.
She was turned over to the Avery County Sheriff’s Office on an additional charge of murder in the death of 70-year-old Lynn Gay Keene.
Carserino was taken to the Avery County Detention Center on $ 1.62 million bail.
MPs said Keene, who had been missing in Avery County for nearly two months, was found buried in concrete in the basement of a house. Her caretaker, Carserino, who was considered a person of interest, was found in the hospital with a drug problem.
After her discharge from the hospital, MPs took Carserino, who went from Elizabeth Freeman, into custody.
The Avery County Sheriff’s Office filed a missing person report for Keene on Friday, July 30th. She was reported missing by her family from her Linville Falls home, with her last contact being on June 14th.
Detectives found the house secured and Keene’s vehicle, a 2000 Lincoln Town Car, was not in their home. Keene and her vehicle were added to the state database to find her vehicle.
Cherokee Police Department officials on Monday reported to the Avery County Sheriff’s Office that Keene’s vehicle had been abandoned on Cherokee’s Blue Wing Road.
A search of the vehicle revealed that the car was locked and the keys to the vehicle were found under the driver’s seat.
Avery detectives were then issued a warrant to search Lynn Keene’s home and, with the assistance of the NC SBI and her crime scene team, a search of the house was conducted.
During the search, detectives and SBI agents found human remains buried in concrete in the basement. An autopsy was performed on the human remains found and dental records determined that the remains were Keene. The autopsy also found that the cause of death was murder and Keene did not die of natural causes.
MPs identified Elizabeth Freeman of Goose Creek, SC, as a suspect.
MPs say Freeman, 53, was hired by the family to be Keene’s caretaker.
Detective Tim Austin says after the vehicle was found “he knew something was wrong”.
Two empty bags with a concrete mix were found in the trunk. Then the investigation changed from a missing person case to something more, and when arrest warrants were sought to enter Keene’s home.
When he and another detective opened the basement door, Austin says, “We saw a lot of flies and that is an indication of something deceased.”
A mass of hardened concrete was found and the SBI was called. Agents broke enough concrete to discover human remains inside.
“She had a blunt violent trauma to her head and strangulation from ligature – it was a belt,” said Austin.
When investigators searched for Freeman, they found a surveillance video in a Marion store showing the caretaker driving Keene’s car and using one of her bank cards.
The MPs assume that someone else could be involved.
The two bags of concrete mix weighed 80 pounds each.
They believe this was too much for Freeman to handle on their own.
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