E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
NBC New York
Bahsid Mclean, 23-year-old son of Tania Byrd, was charged with second-degree murder, among other charges Wednesday.
A 23-year-old man accused of killing his mother, cutting up her body with a saw and dumping it on the curb throughout their Bronx neighborhood said at a court appearance Thursday that his mother was dying and that he was trying to help.
Bahsid McLean, 23, was denied bail at the appearance where he was charged with second-degree murder for allegedly killing his mother, 45-year-old Tania Byrd.
"I didn't do anything wrong," McLean shouted in court. McLean, wearing a black garbage bag, had several other outbursts during the court appearance where he is also charged with unlawful dissection of a human body. It was not immediately clear what he meant when he said his mother was dying.
Read original story on NBCNewYork.com
McLean's attorney said outside of court that his client is not taking the medication he needs, but would not specify what that was or the condition he has.
McLean's friend, William Harris, 26, faces the same unlawful dissection charge for allegedly helping McLean dispose of Byrd's body. Lawyer information for Harris was not immediately available.
Law enforcement officials tell NBC 4 New York that both men have admitted to chopping up the body and using a shopping cart to dump the parts along the curb in Morrisania, but each is pointing the finger at the other for killing Byrd.
Officials say the two men tell different stories. The son says he left the apartment he shared with his mother at about 3 a.m. Monday to go to the ATM. When he returned, he has told investigators, his friend had stabbed Byrd to death and threatened to kill him and his 6-year-old brother if he didn't help get rid of the body.
His friend, meanwhile, has told investigators that the son told him he killed his mother, and showed him a photograph of her, dead, asking for his friend's help in disposing of her corpse.
The two suspects agree that they went to a Bronx hardware store to purchase supplies for the job, including a power saw and gloves. Investigators say there are bloodstains at the apartment, and that it appears someone tried to clean up the mess with bleach.
An empty power saw box was also found there. The saw was found at the apartment of the friend's girlfriend, officials said.
Law enforcement officials say the pair cut up the body on Monday night and dumped it around 9:30 p.m. Surveillance camera video shows the son in the apartment building lobby, leaving the elevator with numerous bags, and then video outside the building shows two men wheeling away a shopping cart.
Officials say a man walking his dog along 158th Street in Morrisania early Tuesday morning came upon a plastic bag of what he thought were books. As he moved to open the bag, he noticed a vehicle circling the block and became nervous, so he took the bag around the corner and looked inside, finding two hands and a shoulder.
He sent his son to call police and continued walking the dog. About two blocks away on Eagle Avenue he and the dog came upon a suitcase, and the dog sat down next to it. The man opened the suitcase and found a woman's torso, wearing a bra, according to law enforcement officials.
Responding police found a plastic bag further down Eagle Avenue that contained a leg and a foot, and then nearby on Cauldwell Avenue, they found a black suitcase with a leg and the woman's head.
Previous report on this story: