Man arrested for keeping dead roommate’s body in basement for 56 days

Hallett is accused of strangling his roommate and then chopping him up (Image: GETTY) A Massachusetts man has been accused of keeping the body of his murdered roommate in a basement for 56 days before chopping him up and disposing of the parts in public trash cans. John Hallett, 48, was arrested in Boston last week – six years after he allegedly strangled Paul Gonzales to death following a despite over mail in November 2017. Massachusetts State Police (MSP) allege Hallett kept Gonzales’s body in a basement for more than a month before he dismembered the body and threw parts away in several trash cans in Indiana. Det. Lt. Anna Painter opened an investigation in August 2022 after getting a tip about a murder taking place inside the home where the slaying allegedly took place. A cadaver dog sent to the property found what appeared to be human remains and tests confirmed the decomposing matter belonged to a human. For all the latest on news, politics, sports, and showbiz from the USA, go to  Daily Express US Hallett was arrested at him home in Cambridge six years after the murder (Image: WCVB) Painter then “worked quickly” to identify her potential victim as Gonzales and Hallet as her suspect. An arrest affidavit cited in The Times of Northwest Indiana showed prosecutors are alleging the suspected killer hit his victim with a crutch after he started to think Gonzales was stealing his mail. The duo were placed together by a housing agency in 2015 because they were both homeless. Painter wrote in the affidavit: “John then moved Paul’s body into a bedroom for a few days but then moved him into the basement where he was kept for 56 days. “John then used a hacksaw to cut up Paul’s body and place the parts into trash bags where he then disposed of them in the city residential trash cans.’ The Det. Lt. secured a warrant for Hallett on August 8, 2023. Michigan City police and the US Marshals Service soon learned the suspected killer was in the Cambridge, Massachusetts area. He was arrested on Thursday and charged with murder and abuse of a corpse. Hallett is awaiting extradition back to Indiana at the Middlesex Jail & House of Correction. The man’s neighbor, Alex Majetich, said she saw police storm into the apartment building last week as she headed to work. She told WBTS: “I just assumed they were, like, shooting a movie or something because this stuff doesn’t happen around here.” Follow our social media accounts here on  facebook.com/ExpressUSNews  and @expressusnews