A New Jersey woman and a reputed Bloods gangbanger allegedly posed with the dismembered body of the woman’s landlord in disturbing photos unexpectedly discovered by investigators this week.
Police were investigating the woman for harboring a fugitive after she took in the ranking gang member –who was wanted for the shooting death of his ex-girlfriend — when they came across the shocking pictures on her phone, prosecutors said Wednesday.
The images on Elizabeth Mascarelli’s cellphone showed her and murder suspect Maxwell Johnston with “an individual who is clearly deceased, amputated at the top of his legs, and with a hatchet in his chest,” an Ocean County Assistant Prosecutor said during the 29-year-old woman’s detention hearing.
Mascarelli — who was behind bars for holing up with Johnston — allegedly had her hand gripping the hatchet in the landlord’s chest.
Up until that point, police did not know that the 56-year-old victim, Kerry Rollason, had been killed.
The deranged images led to the discovery of his slaughter and dismemberment.
Rollason owned the Toms River home where Mascarelli allegedly hid Johnston for four days before the Bloods member killed himself during a seven-hour standoff with cops.
Mascarelli and three others are now accused of helping Johnston to dismember and dispose of Rollason’s body on July 3.
The stomach-churning saga first began one week earlier when Johnston opened fire on his ex-girlfriend Gabriella Caroleo after they got into an argument on the street in Manchester Township, according to arrest affidavits obtained by the Toms River Patch.
Caroleo, 25, called police and identified the gunman as Johnston before succumbing to her injuries. She also texted her mother moments before the shooting, asking her to call the cops out of fear of Johnston.
Even Johnston’s own parents called police and admitted they thought their gang-affiliated son was responsible for Caroleo’s killing.
He had “become increasingly paranoid” in recent months and had asked his father to take care of his daughter, the arrest documents state.
Mascarelli knew Johnston was responsible for his ex-girlfriend’s slaying, but let him stay with her in her Toms River rental, less than 15 miles from where the shooting occurred, according to the papers.
Alleged accomplices Danielle Bolstad, 42; Jared Krysiak, 34; and Jarred Palumbo, 36 were also inside the home with the pair and heard three gunshots erupt on July 3. They then saw Rollason’s bullet-riddled body in the basement, the affidavit states.
Mascarelli and Krysiak allegedly helped Johnston sever the landlord’s body into eight pieces — sparing several minutes in the process to take the disgusting pictures with the dead man.
Palumbo is accused of helping the trio load the bagged body parts into a Kia Soul, which they then drove several miles away and dumped at a property in Jackson — where the property owner claims he saw them milling about.
Police tracked Johnston to Mascarelli’s rental home two days later, but the alleged killer refused to emerge.
Bolstad, Krysiak and Palumbo ran out at the start of the seven-hour police stand-off, but Mascarelli only left after Johnston committed suicide.
She was initially only taken into custody for harboring a fugitive, but the charges were upped this week when cops combed through her phone and found the sick pictures, which also showed Johnston and Bolstad around “an active burn barrel” on the Jackson property.
Bolstad, Krysiak and Palumbo have also been arrested in connection to the murder.
Why the five-some killed the landlord is still a mystery.
In court on Wednesday, Mascarelli’s public defender claimed she has a lengthy history of drug abuse and said she was afraid of Johnston.
