Lynn woman's neighbor noticed ‘the smell of death' coming from her apartment

LYNN, Mass. — Details of a gruesome crime shocked residents of a Lynn woman, but they say they noticed signs of abuse in the weeks before her murder.

A homeless man with ties to Lynn accused in two murders was held without bail following an arraignment for the charge of murdering his girlfriend.

"I knew it had to be something bad, but I had no idea that she was murdered,” neighbor Donna Hill said.

Hill lived next door to 56-year-old Kathleen Burgess in Lynn. Police say it was at that apartment on Hall Street where her adult daughter found Burgess’s badly decomposed body, 10 days after David Grossack allegedly killed her in December.

“She gained access through the kitchen window and found her mother deceased on the apartment floor covered up with blankets and sheets,” Essex Assistant District Attorney Karen Hopwood told the court.

Hill told FOX25 she had noticed a smell coming from Burgess' apartment, but thought it was an animal.

“I did notice that the smell was there. You know that’s, uh, the smell of death,” she said.

Other neighbors said they heard Grossack verbally abuse Burgess.

Investigators say they found signs of a struggle and the medical examiner says she died of blunt force trauma to the head.

“Pretty much everything in the apartment was thrown around,” Hopwood said. “There was blood evidence; it was observed and collected throughout the studio apartment."

Police say while in custody, "Grossack stated that he had attempted to kill himself months ago after he killed his girlfriend" and provided “specific details regarding his stressful relationship with Burgess."

Grossack is also charged with the murder of 65-year old Frank Brescia, whose decomposing body was discovered inside an Everett apartment in February.

In the days after Burgess's murder, police say Grossack stayed in her apartment before moving between Boston homeless shelters until he was arrested in Pittsfield.

Cox Media Group