Michalski was found inside the freezer in a garage behind the property surrounded by trash. It was unclear how long she had been dead when police found her body.

Bratcher had told conflicting stories about her mother in recent months, according to neighbors who spoke with the Chicago Sun-Times. She allegedly made various statements about her mother being in a nursing home in another state, still living healthy at home or that she had died.

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No cause of death was immediately known as an autopsy was pending.

Cook County court records show that Bratcher was arrested nearly a dozen times between 1997 and 2005, and pleaded guilty in 2006 to felony counts of forgery in two cases, according to the paper. She was also convicted of misdemeanor battery, for which she was sentenced to probation, and has faced a slew of other charges that were eventually dropped, including battery, assault and retail theft.

Bratcher’s daughter Sabrina Watson, who lives in Kentucky, told the paper that she called police to check on her grandmother.

"I just said, I’m calling [the police] and just having them do a welfare check," Watson said. "What could go wrong? Apparently everything.

"My heart is broken," she added. "I miss her very much."

One of Michalski’s grandchildren, Diane Michalski, told the outlet that she hadn’t seen her grandmother in 20 years.

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"She didn’t deserve to go that way," she said.

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Michalski said her grandmother was a Polish immigrant who spent most of her life working for Motorola.

Fox News’ Louis Casiano and the Associated Press contributed to this report.