Georgia man accused of placing grandma in freezer — while still alive — after fall last year

ARMUCHEE, Ga. — A Georgia man once accused of trying to hire a hit man to kill his wife has now been charged with the murder of his 82-year-old grandmother, who has been found dead in a freezer.

Robert Keith Tincher III, 29, of Armuchee, allegedly failed to seek help when his grandmother fell late last year. The Rome News-Tribune reported that Tincher instead placed her in plastic trash bags and dragged her through the home to a large freezer.

Police reports obtained by the newspaper indicate the woman, who has not been publicly identified, was alive as her grandson dragged her across the house. Several of her bones were broken in the process.

Tincher told police investigators his grandmother’s back also broke as he stuffed her body into the freezer and locked it, the News-Tribune reported. He said he could hear her breathing and moving inside the frigid appliance.

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“(The) accused had no provocation or altercation with the victim, nor (performed) life saving measures,” a police report stated, according to the paper.

The reports indicated that Tincher told detectives he was afraid to be found out, so he kept his grandmother’s body in the freezer. About four months after the killing, he moved the freezer to a storage unit, where it was subsequently discovered by police.

Details of that discovery were not immediately available. Tincher was arrested Thursday at his home.

Tincher is charged with felony malice murder, felony murder, concealing a death and aggravated battery in his grandmother’s death, according to Floyd County Jail records. He is also being held on charges of failing to appear on charges of felony terroristic threat and acts stemming from July 2018.

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WSB-TV in Atlanta reported that Tincher and Steven Walter Brooks, then 25, were accused of conspiring to kill Tincher’s then-wife, Courtney Tincher. Courtney Tincher went to police in Rome and accused her husband of vandalizing her car a few months prior.

He also posted on Facebook about hiring a hit man to kill her, according to the news station.

Authorities said at the time that Tincher used Facebook Messenger to contact Brooks about a “contract” to put his wife “6 feet deep,” the station reported.

Court records indicate that Brooks was acquitted of the charges in January 2019.

Robert Tincher, who was indicted in September 2018, failed to show up for a court date and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest the same month that Brooks was found not guilty.

The warrant remained in effect when Tincher’s grandmother was slain.

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