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Police in Texas were horrified to learn how a woman murdered her landlord, and then took over the rentals, tricking clueless tenants to clean up the crime scene, and even kept on paying property taxes.

The case of the murderous imposter began almost like the opening scenes of a horror movie.

On February 2021, a severe winter storm was battering neighbourhoods in Texas, causing widespread power outages and hundreds of deaths, but also providing the perfect chaotic backdrop for murder.

Around midnight one night, police allege a resident of a Houston home, Pamela Ann Merritt murdered her landlord, 78-year-old Colin Kerdachi, and then took his place. Kerdachi’s body was hidden under a set of stairs in the backyard, and Merritt immediately took over his duties, renting the house to an unsuspecting tenant.

A tenant, Tabatha Pope, was even tricked into cleaning up evidence of the murder for a discount on her rent. It would be Pope who eventually discovered the body as well.

Records show that Merritt even paid thousands of dollars in property taxes in 2021 and 2022, after the landlord’s death.

According to court records, Pope was still living at the residence as of March 10 of this year. “It’s still shocking. But I’m glad I was a part of it, or else she probably would’ve gotten away with it. Because nobody else seemed to care, at all,” Pope said.

Making this even more eerie, the apartment is still listed on a rental website, showing a lovely multi-story home with flower bushes and a palm tree in the front yard. The listing advertises immediate move-in and references the deceased landlord as Colin, a “helpful guy.”

Houston homicide detective R. M. Watson details a disturbing series of events that led to Merritt’s eventual arrest.

According to Watson, patrol officers responded to a burglary call at the residence after a resident identifying himself as Joe Guy said that he returned home for a trip to find Merritt in the residence instead of Kerdachi. Merritt apparently refused to leave, telling Guy that she killed the previous landlord, and was now in charge. Police took Merritt to a hospital for psychological evaluation, but she was eventually released.

Months later, police were called to the house again, this time by Pope. Pope told officers that she had recently moved into the residence and was paying rent to Merritt, and she ‘offered her a discount on rent if she agreed to clean the second and third stories’, where she found large pools and drops of blood, specifically near the bathtub.

She also found a knife in the mailbox and a bin with blood in it in a crawl space, as well as personal items that belonged to Kerdachi. According to Pope, Merritt told her that the previous caretaker had ‘died in hospital after he fell on a sharp object’ at the house.

Pope eventually found the body under a stairwell and contacted the police. According to her, she let the landlord in on the discovery, but a ‘peppy’ Merritt insisted it was probably a dead dog. She stuck to this story after being brought in for questioning, claiming that Kerdachi was ‘probably alive in Africa somewhere’.

Amazingly, the crazy story worked, and she was released.

Two years later, in 2023, Detective Watson visited the house and spoke to Tabatha Pope, who was still living there. She told her story to the detective, and a one-time friend of Merritt’s also told Watson that she had confessed that Kerdachi’s body was under the stairs.

The body was finally discovered, and Merritt was arrested at a motel only last week – years after the murder. She will be appearing before the courts this November.

There simply is no way that this murder will not be turned into a movie at some point. Amy Adams will be perfect for the role of Merritt in our opinion.

[source:vice]