Prosecutors: Behind on rent, brothers killed landlord, stashed body in sewer
Two brothers are facing first-degree murder charges in the strangling death of their landlord, a 73-year-old Rolling Meadows man, whose body was left to decompose in a sewer last month in front of their apartment building in Englewood.
Tony Green, 22, and Elijah Green, 25, were both denied bail during a Monday court hearing, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
On Aug. 3, the Greens hatched a plan to lure their landlord, Vasudevareddy Kethireddy, to the apartment they were renting from him in the 6200 block of South May, according to prosecutors, who said the brothers owed the elderly man rent.
For two days, the brothers called Kethireddy multiple times complaining of a leaky roof. When Kethireddy showed up at their apartment, Tony Green led him to the back of the unit and his brother choked him to death, prosecutors said.
A witness saw Elijah Green carry Kethireddy’s body out the back door before the brothers threw it in the landlord’s car and drove around to look for a place to dispose of it, prosecutors said. When they failed to find a spot to dump the body, the brothers allegedly went back home and left it in the back seat underneath a sheet.
Later that night or early the following morning, Tony and Elijah Green drove Kethireddy’s car over the sewer in front of their apartment building, took the lid off and threw the man’s body inside, prosecutors said.
The Greens took $1,600 in cash from Kethireddy’s car and used his credit cards at nearby businesses after his killing, prosecutors said.
When Kethireddy was reported missing, Rolling Meadows detectives searched his phone and financial records. The investigators started working with Chicago police and the city’s water department after learning that someone had used Tony Green’s cellphone to search how long it takes a body to decompose in sewer water.
Kethireddy’s body was found in the sewer on Friday, prosecutors said. Elijah Green was arrested at the brothers’ apartment the following day, and Tony Green was taken into custody there on Sunday.
Both brothers have since admitted to being involved in the plan to kill Kethireddy and hide his body, prosecutors said. They are being held at Cook County Jail awaiting Friday court hearings.