Head Found in Freezer of Man Who Says He Stabbed ‘Cadaver Doll', Police Say

What to Know

• A Lancaster, Pennsylvania, man faces homicide charges after he led police to a human head in his freezer.
• Donald Meshey Jr. told investigators he stabbed a “cadaver doll” that looked and sounded like his father then dismembered the body.
• Meshey was charged with criminal homicide, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence.

A Pennsylvania man who claimed he stabbed a “cadaver doll” in his father’s bedroom is charged with homicide after the head in the freezer he showed police turned out to belong to a person.

Lancaster police were called to Donald Meshey Jr.’s West Strawberry Street apartment Wednesday morning after an upset family member called them saying that Meshey told her “that there was a cadaver in one of the beds in the home and there was a head in the freezer,” police said in a news release.

The caller also said she saw what appeared to be the head of a family member in the freezer.

An officer arrived at the home and was met by Meshey.

“Meshey escorted the officer inside the residence and took the officer to the kitchen, where he proceeded to remove what appeared to be a human head from the freezer to show the officer,” police said.

The officer called for backup and Meshey was taken into custody.

The coroner later confirmed that the head was human, police said. No official identification has been made.

Meshey, 32, told detectives that he used a knife to stab what appeared to him to be a “cadaver doll” that looked and sounded like his father in his father’s bedroom, police said.

The attack took two to three minutes and afterward Meshey dismembered the body, he told investigators.

Meshey was charged with criminal homicide, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence.

Meshey remained in custody without bail Thursday. Online court records don’t name an attorney who could comment on his behalf.