A Chicago woman who already served prison time for hiding her mother’s body in a freezer for nearly two years now faces federal charges alleging she collected the dead woman’s Social Security benefits while concealing her death.
Eva Bratcher is accused of taking $21,402 from the Social Security Administration after her mother, Regina Michalski, died. The New York Post reported, citing the Justice Department, that Bratcher assumed her mother’s identity, collected her Social Security benefits, and used her Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits during the roughly two years Michalski’s body remained hidden.
Federal prosecutors also allege Bratcher used another Social Security number to obtain additional SNAP benefits she was not entitled to receive. She now faces three federal fraud-related charges.
The allegations add a new chapter to a case that began with a well-being check in Chicago in January 2023 and ended with police finding Michalski inside a deep freezer in a garage. At the time, officials suspected money may have been behind the concealment, but the benefits allegations were not part of the state charges that sent Bratcher to prison.
The Missing Piece
Bratcher’s daughter, Sabrina Watson, had contacted Chicago police from Kentucky and asked officers to check on her grandmother.
Police found Michalski’s body inside a freezer in the garage of the Portage Park property where Bratcher and her mother had lived. Prosecutors later said a receipt recovered from the home showed the freezer had been purchased about a week after Michalski was believed to have died.
Investigators also recovered a state identification card containing Bratcher’s photograph but her mother’s information.
The benefit question surfaced almost immediately. CWB Chicago reported after Bratcher’s 2023 sentencing that officials suspected she had concealed her mother’s death so she could continue collecting Michalski’s Social Security checks.
The new federal case now directly alleges that she did.
Inside The Garage
Michalski’s body had been kept frozen for nearly two years before police discovered it.
The circumstances initially left another obvious question unanswered: how she had died. Once the body thawed enough for an examination, the Cook County medical examiner determined Michalski died accidentally after choking on a foreign object, according to CWB Chicago.
Bratcher ultimately pleaded guilty in the state case to concealing a death and possessing a fraudulent identification card. In October 2023, a judge sentenced her to 18 months on each count, with the sentences running concurrently.
Those convictions dealt with what Bratcher did with her mother’s body and the false identification. The newly announced federal case concerns what prosecutors say happened financially while Michalski remained hidden.
A Wider Sweep
Bratcher is one of 17 people charged as part of a monthlong Justice Department enforcement effort targeting fraud involving Social Security benefit programs.
The Justice Department says the cases collectively involve more than $1.3 million in alleged losses. Several defendants are accused of continuing to collect benefits belonging to dead or disabled relatives.
Assistant Attorney General Colin McDonald said the cases represent only part of the fraud being pursued through the department’s new National Fraud Enforcement Division.
Bratcher has not been convicted of the new federal charges. She is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.