MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — A woman was found dead over the weekend inside a dumpster in South Beach, and police believe her killer was her own son.
Miami Beach police said they were asked to conduct a welfare check just before 9:30 p.m. Saturday at an apartment unit at the Blackstone apartments, located along Eighth Street and Washington Avenue.
The woman’s body was found inside a dumpster in the back of the apartment building.
The victim has since been identified as Elizabeth Caruso.
Police said they believe she was killed by her own son, 40-year-old Anthony Caruso.
According to police, Elizabeth Caruso was in town from New Jersey to check on her son.
“There was a trail of blood coming from that apartment unit to the trash chute, and subsequently down the trash chute and inside of the waste container,” Officer Christopher Bess said.
Authorities have since taken Anthony Caruso into custody, but it followed an eight-hour standoff in which he barricaded himself inside a unit, police said.
“There was a lot of us out here. We were all across the street -- they wouldn’t let us in,” Leslie Rivera, who lives in the building, said.
Officers blocked off the street in order to investigate, focusing much of their attention on the dumpster behind the building.
That dumpster appeared to be up on a forklift when it was loaded onto the back of a tow truck, the top of it covered by a yellow sheet.
Just a few feet away, several evidence markers were placed along the sidewalk with what appeared to be some articles of clothing on the ground nearby.
At one point, firefighters went up on a ladder to collect a potential piece of evidence that looked like a towel up in a tree.
Police have not disclosed how Elizabeth Caruso was murdered or what led up to the deadly attack, but detectives said her neck was severely injured, nearly to the point of decapitation.
“She flew in from out of state to check on her son who we believe to suffer from mental illness,” Bess said.
Anthony Caruso now faces a second-degree murder.
As of Monday, he was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center without bond.
Online jail records show he was out on probation at the time of his arrest for charges of aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, battery, arson and criminal mischief.
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