Natalia Chi
Twenty years ago, when Sabrina Watson’s mother was about to go to jail, she gave her 14-year-old daughter an embarrassing order.
According to Watson, Eva Blacher directed that if the girl’s grandmother died, she should be buried under a different name.
“And I said why? And she said, ‘Fool, if you bury her under the name Regina Michalski, I won’t get her checks anymore, and I’ll I need those checks,” Watson recalled.
Earlier this week, investigators found Michalski’s body in a freezer stored in the garage of the two-story apartment she and Bratcher lived in in Portage Park.
A 96-year-old woman appears to have been dead for nearly two years. Prosecutors did not reveal a motive for Blucher’s concealment of her death, but her ID found at her home had a picture of Bracher but her mother’s name.
In addition to fake IDs, investigators found a document in her home that was purportedly signed by Michalski, but dated after her apparent death, and Blucher marked March 4, 2021 on her calendar. It was written as 2:00 p.m.
Receipts found at the home showed Bratcher purchased a freezer from Abt a week after his mother was believed to have died, prosecutors said.
A cause of death has not yet been determined, and prosecutors said the coroner’s office may need until the weekend to fully defrost the body for an autopsy.
Prosecutors said police were also investigating whether Bratcher received her mother’s Social Security checks and other benefits after her mother died. and faces a felony charge of possessing a forged identity card.
At Thursday’s hearing, Judge David Kelly called the allegations “extremely disturbing” and said he would have to post a bond of $20,000 to be released on electronic surveillance.
Bratcher’s attorneys said they could afford the $5,000 security deposit, but did not say if or when additional money would be available.
Once she was released from prison, she would be allowed to return to her building, but a judge warned her of “illegal contact” with other tenants of the building who were potential witnesses. .
Michalski’s body was discovered after Watson, who lives in Kentucky, called the police and asked for a health check.
“I told you I was calling you [the police] Watson, 38, said: Apparently, all. “
Watson said she spent years scanning obituaries looking for her grandmother’s name. When Watson last saw her decades ago, Michalski was in poor health.
Watson said her mother blocked her number, and whenever she visited Chicago and stopped by the house, no one answered.
At one point, Watson, who had been estranged for years, took drastic steps to warn people about dealing with their mothers.
“This page is to warn anyone who knows Eva Michalski (aka Eva Bratcher, aka Ewa Michalska, and possibly other aka) that she is a dangerous criminal!” Page says.
Bracher was sentenced to four years in prison in 2010 for counterfeiting in Lake County, according to court records.
In January 2006, she pleaded guilty to two counts of forgery and was also sentenced to six months in prison and two years’ probation in Cook County Jail.
In late 2006, she was convicted of misdemeanor offenses and two other protection order violations, and was also sentenced to two years of probation.
Bracher completed probation by failing to meet the requirements and pleaded guilty to violating the terms of his release, records show. After that, she was sentenced to two years in prison at the same time, even though she had served a good amount of time.
She also faces various charges that have been dropped, including battery, assault, retail store theft, criminal damage to property, and reckless and disorderly conduct.
Prosecutors said Bratcher hid his mother’s death from the building’s residents and neighbors by telling him his mother was in a nursing home.
Resident Bridget Yannes told The Sun-Times she remembered a conversation months ago in which Bracher talked about buying a present for her mother.
“She was still talking about her as if she was here,” Yanez said. “She said she told my father that I would be very confused. [that her mother] I was at home in Wisconsin. “
Bratcher is scheduled to return to court on February 21.
