Naseema Sami charged with the murder of her former landlord and her friend at the woman’s West Norriton Township residence. Had desired a safe place to go.
A Pennsylvania woman has been charged with killing two women, including her former landlord, in front of her 6-year-old son, authorities said.
Naseema Sami, 43, of Folsom, is facing two counts of first-degree murder and other charges in the deaths of Lila Frost, 78, and Lorraine Gigliello, 68, who were found murdered late Sunday in Frost’s West Indian Lane residence in West Norriton Township, Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele announced on Monday.
Steele said police responded to a neighbor’s call for a wellness check whereby they found the front door of her apartment locked. Officers then accessed the residence via a rear door only to find Sami and her 6-year-old son beneath a bed, as well as the bodies of both Frost and Gigliello nearby.
Naseema Sami had gone to see her ex landlord seeking help:
A subsequent investigation revealed that Sami had driven with her son to the residence days earlier, arriving on Thursday in search of help from Frost, who had been her landlord some 20 years prior, Steele said.
At the time, Sami entered Frost’s apartment through an unlocked door and found no one home. Sami later answered a knock at the door and met Gigliello, who was visiting Frost. Sami then killed the woman when she reached for a phone to call police, Steele said.
Frost then returned to her apartment as the attack unfolded and was also killed by Sami, who allegedly attempted to clean the home with bleach to remove evidence of the attack.
‘They were murdered by a former renter, who had lived at the property 20 years ago and had returned because the landlord, Ms. Frost, had offered to help her if she ever needed anything,’ Steele said in a statement. ‘Naseema Sami then murdered Ms. Frost and Ms. Gigliello, who was just visiting her friend. Our hearts go out to the families of these two victims and pledge to them that we will seek justice for their murders.’
Autopsies determined that Frost died of multiple injuries, while Gigliello succumbed to head trauma. The manner of death for both victims was homicide, Steele said.
Steele described investigators finding a ‘very bloody scene’ inside the residence, while announcing Sami’s arrest and the killings were the first recorded homicides in the section of Montgomery County since 1986, according to Philly.com.
TONIGHT: 43-year-old Naseema Sami remains behind bars after police found the bodies of two elderly women inside a West Norriton home on Sunday. Police say her 6-year-old son witnessed the brutal attacks, and her attempt to clean up the bloody crime scene. @CBSPhilly pic.twitter.com/am5ybxvr0G
— Kimberly Davis CBS3 (@KimberlyDavisTV) March 12, 2019
Naseema Sami bloodbath: ‘I can’t imagine anyone wanting to hurt victim.’
Brittany Sheridan a tenant renting the third floor apartment described the crime scene as surreal.
‘It’s devastating and surreal,’ the woman told via abc7chicago.com. ‘I can’t imagine anyone would ever want to hurt her. She is the last person who ever deserved to be harmed.’
Responding police officers found Sami with what appeared to be dried blood on her hands. She later told investigators she went to Frost’s home, where she rented an upstairs apartment decades earlier, because she ‘desired a safe place to go,’ according to an affidavit of probable cause.
‘She was worried, concerned about something,’ Steele said. ‘And she decided to go to a kindhearted person who years before had offered her help.’
Sami’s son, meanwhile, who witnessed both killings, watched as his mother tried to clean up the alleged crime scene with as many as 10 bottles of bleach, Steele told reporters.
