Neighbors say ‘everybody knew’ drug dealing child molester went into Brooklyn apartment but ‘never came back out’ as cops find his severed head and body parts in freezer

A neighbor believes “everyone in the building” knew about a man later revealed to be a drug dealer and sex offender whose severed head and body parts were found in a Brooklyn woman’s freezer.

Heather Stines, 45, was arrested Monday night after police received a tip about the gruesome discovery and found the body parts in her freezer in Brooklyn.

NYPD detectives have identified the remains as belonging to 40-year-old Kawsheen Gelzer, also known as Dave Draper, sources told DailyMail.com.

Gelzer has been on New York’s sex offender registry since 2005 after being convicted of molesting a 12-year-old boy and serving a prison sentence for sexual abuse, among several other arrests, according to records.

Stines, a mother of two, told police her husband Nicholas McGee killed Gelzer in September in a dispute over drugs, then dismembered him and put him in the freezer, but neighbors have their suspicions.

“Everyone in the building knew,” tenant Dorothy Williams told the New York Post of Gelzer.

‘Everyone knew he went in there and never came out. We’ve all talked about it.’

Despite his reputation, Williams sympathizes with Gelzer, noting that a makeshift memorial has been started in the building’s lobby.

‘It’s such a terrible thing. He didn’t deserve to die like that. No one deserves to die like this. You can see the ladies in the building, we put up pictures of him and write things like ‘rest in peace’ and things like that.”

Stines undergoes a psychiatric evaluation at Brookdale Hospital after being questioned by detectives, who so far only accuse her of hiding a body.

“She said that, and we believe it to be true,” a source said of her claims against her husband, adding that the case was being investigated as a suspected drug-related homicide.

McGee has been in a jail in Chesapeake, Virginia, since September after being accused of cashing a fraudulent check at a bank.

Law enforcement sources told DailyMail.com police are still investigating how much involvement Stines had in the crime.

“She says it was her husband, but he’s in jail and she’s there with a dead body,” one person said.

When asked if they believed McGee killed Gelzer, they said, “That’s possible. I don’t think she could have dismembered the body herself.

“Maybe they were together… we don’t know how long this guy was in the refrigerator.”

Gelzer was convicted of sexual abuse in the first degree, contact under duress, which he committed on August 8, 2004, the criminal record showed.

NYPD confirmed they were called to the apartment on Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn at 7:10 p.m.

Once there, sources said officers noticed a suspiciously taped refrigerator, which Stines was adamant they had not opened while trying to inspect it.

Stines was arrested when she tried to prevent officers from looking inside.

Officers found the body parts in black plastic bags in both the refrigerator and freezer and removed them from the apartment for DNA testing.

Gelzer was identified by his distinctive gang tattoos that matched arrest records.

The medical examiner is still working to determine the cause of death, which could take some time because they “have to wait until (parts of) the body has thawed.”

The NYPD previously said officers “observed an unconscious and unresponsive, unidentified male inside the apartment.”

“EMS responded and stated the assisted decedent was on scene,” NYPD said in a statement.

The medical examiner will determine the cause of death and the investigation is ongoing.

It’s unclear how long the body was in the freezer before police found it, but neighbors told DailyMail.com that Stines never allowed anyone into her kitchen.

Stines’ elderly aunt, Amy Stines, expressed her shock and horror at the news on Tuesday.

“Oh God, I just can’t fathom this,” the 79-year-old from Kentucky told DailyMail.com.

She said her niece has had drug problems for years and moved from Kentucky six years ago in hopes of escaping her problems.

According to the aunt, Heather lived with her husband in an apartment in Brooklyn and earned some money cleaning apartments.

She said she contacted her niece on Sunday to see how she was doing and to catch up, but received no response.

McGee was due in court Tuesday morning, his sister-in-law Catherine McGee, 55, said.

She told DailyMail.com that the couple were both drug abusers, had used heroin and crack and had been arrested several times. She said Heather relapsed a “year or two” ago after learning one of her daughters had died of a drug overdose.

The sister-in-law said she had spoken to Nicholas about the police investigation.

“He’s going to be devastated because he’s getting out of jail and she’s potentially going to jail for a possible murder,” she said.

Darrell, who lives across the street from Stines on the Brooklyn block and sometimes lent her money, said he knew she was a drug addict and that people tried to break into her apartment at least twice looking for money she owed for drugs.

He said he last saw McGee, who was “a cool guy,” in the last week of August.

“They got into a fight one night and I haven’t seen him since,” he said.

“A few days later she said, ‘My husband is incarcerated, I don’t have my food stamp card, do you have $10?’ I said sure.

“A few days ago she said detectives were here looking for my husband and I told them he was in jail.

‘She’s really cool. I never expected her to have a head in the freezer, no.’

Another couple living in the building said Stines was so addicted to crack and heroin that she had sold “everything of value” in her apartment, even her TV.

“She’s what we call a dumpster addict, she does all the drugs,” they said.

“Heather is one of the people who demolished this building. No one would be sad if she went to jail.”

The couple said Stines recently started hanging out with a short black man with dreadlocks, with whom she was often seen – as recently as the weekend.

Stines’ aunt Amy said her niece had several children from previous relationships who were taken from her.

As far as she knew, Child Protective Services took the children away after determining she was negligent.

“The worst thing I know is that she lost her children because someone reported that they were sleeping on the floor because she had no beds,” the aunt said.

“She said she threw out the beds because of bed bugs. They slept on pallets.’

“My husband said let’s go buy them some beds, and before we knew it she didn’t have any more children,” she added.

‘She went to live with her cousin and then stole her computer. She also stole some money from me and my husband. She would just run away. You couldn’t do anything with her.’

“Even though she was bad, she was sweet,” the aunt said. “She was as nice as can be.”

A few years ago, the aunt recalled, “Heather said she had to get out of here. And I said you like New York better than here? I told her there are more drugs in New York.

“She said she would come back to Kentucky at some point, and I would let her stay with me,” she continued.

‘But she never came back. She sometimes texted me for money over the years. I always asked if she was in trouble and she would say, no, it’s almost over.’

The old building with “Flatbush Court” engraved above the always unlocked door was poorly maintained with graffiti on the walls and chips through the plaster of the lobby.

Most of the shops in the area are boarded up and there are piles of rubbish bags on either side of the door.