Corpse Abuse Charges for Youngstown-Area Man Who Kept His Girlfriend's Body in Freezer

Arturo Novoa, 31, was arrested last weekend after a bizarre crime unraveled into a Youngstown police case. He is suspected of storing the body of his missing girlfriend in a freezer. The woman’s cause of death has not yet been confirmed, nor has her identity.

To further confound the matter: Katrina Layton, 34, was arrested Sunday. Police allege that she was aware of the body in the freezer, and that she had assumed the identity of Novoa’s missing girlfriend — driving her car and using her cell phone, according to police. Novoa and Layton had been living together since February in an apartment in Campbell that is leased to Shannon Graves, the former girlfriend of Novoa who was last seen in February.

Both suspects are being held in the Mahoning County jail. The Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s office is performing an autopsy on the woman’s body.

This WKBN interview with Youngstown Lt. Doug Bobovnik illuminates the circuitous path to his police department’s jurisdiction (police believe the freezer “originated” in Youngstown before ending up in the couple’s Campbell home). When Novoa inquired with a friend about padlocks for a freezer, the friend contacted police.