Woman, 70, found chopped up in closet — son arrested: Cops
Inset: Theodore Lloyd (Connecticut Department of Corrections). Background: West Haven, Connecticut, home where Llyod’s mother was found chopped up (Google Maps).
Authorities conducting a welfare check on a 70-year-old woman made a grisly discovery when they found her body chopped up and remains placed in 14 to 16 trash bags in a locked closet at her West Haven, Connecticut, home.
Now her 27-year-old son, Theodore Lloyd, stands accused of attempted arson and trespassing after officers found he tried to torch the home. Cops say additional charges are coming down against Lloyd in the death of his mother Tina Lloyd and they believe he acted alone.
The investigation began on March 24 when Tina Lloyd’s older son asked West Haven police to conduct a welfare check on her at her home on Nashawen Avenue, according to a press release. When officers arrived, they were met with a smell of a decomposing body. They entered the home and found 14 to 16 trash bags in a closet with dismembered body parts. There was also evidence of an attempted arson, cops said.
“The victim’s body was in such a state of decomposition that positive identification took some time,” West Haven police Chief Joe Perno told reporters at a press conference on Friday.
Tina Lloyd was positively identified through DNA examination and comparison, Perno said. Detectives pored through “thousands” of pieces of evidence. Key to identifying Theodore Lloyd as a suspect was surveillance video of him leaving Home Depot and Walmart with items used in the dismemberment, cops said.
“There were several cutting utensils, there was an electric chainsaw and things of that nature,” Det. Jeff Gavinelli said. “A lot of the items were concealed in plastic bags, either in an attempt to be hidden or destroyed, but that was all retrieved by our ID unit.”
