Three women charged with dumping body

Two more women have been charged with helping dump the body of a woman who died last month at a Franklinton apartment from a suspected heroin overdose.

Kristen Danielle Mays, 32, of Franklinton, appeared Wednesday in Franklin County Municipal Court on charges of tampering with evidence and abuse of a corpse. Brittany Westenhouser, 26, of the University District, has been charged with the same offenses.

Erica Renee Escuadra, 37, of the Far West Side, was the first to be arrested last week on those charges in connection with the dumping of the body of Jacqueline Powers, 45, off Big Run Road East, near Gantz Road, in Franklin Township on May 31.

According to court records, the women had all been in an apartment on South Yale Avenue that morning. Escuadra, interviewed by detectives the next day at Mount Carmel West, where she was being treated for an overdose, admitted that she saw Powers inject what she believed was heroin. Powers quickly became unresponsive and died, court records show.

But instead of calling for help, the women stuffed Powers’ body into a closet, court records state. About two hours later, they decided to move it. Mays admitted to detectives with the sheriff’s office that she first brushed Powers’ teeth and wiped down her body in an attempt to conceal potential fingerprints.

The body was then wrapped in a tarp and placed in the back seat of a car, court records show. The women stopped at a gas station, where Mays got out. Escuadra and Westenhouser then took the body to a field, where the body was dumped, records say.

All three women are now being held in the Franklin County jail.