Decapitated body found in vacant Niagara Falls house

NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — Niagara Falls Police say the body of 46-year-old resident Terri Lynn Bills was discovered Tuesday night in a vacant home on the 1100 block of Willow Avenue.

A neighbor told investigators she was walking by the home and a strong odor prompted her to look inside, and that’s where she reported seeing what she believed to be a dead body.

“The home has been vacant for some time, it was properly secured it was boarded up properly. We know that the realtor was here at the end of last month so we think it’s within the last probably three weeks or less that this incident happened,” Niagara Falls Police Capt. Michael Trane said.

Officers discovered a corpse that had begun to decompose significantly and say the head, arms and feet had been removed from the body and were not at the scene.

“Somebody has to really need mental help to be able to do something so disastrous to a human body like that,” said Yvonne Carr, who owns a building across the street.Police believe the crime happened somewhere else, and Bills’ body was then placed in the home.

“To think that it could be happening right now right in my own backyard basically it’s kind of scary,” said Jon Martin, a neighor.

Police said this case is similar to the death of Loretta Gates in 2012. Parts of her body were found in the Niagara River and Hyde Park Lake, and no arrests have been made in that case. At this point, police have not said if there is any connection.

“It’s really early to tell but certainly this type of case is unusual, so yes to have two in a couple of years is unusual,” said Trane.

Police are asking anyone in the area who may have noticed anything suspicious over the past couple weeks to come forward.