CHICAGO — The body of a 96-year-old woman has been found inside a freezer in a garage behind a northwest Chicago apartment building.

Police responded Monday afternoon to the building in the city's Portage Park neighborhood after receiving a call from a relative who lives in another state, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Tuesday.

Neighbors said the woman and her daughter, the building’s landlord, lived together in a first-floor apartment.

The dead woman was identified by a relative as Regina Michalski, according to the newspaper.

Diane Michalski, a granddaughter of the identified woman, told the Sun-Times she once lived on the second floor of the Portage Park flat but hadn’t seen her grandmother or aunt for about 20 years.

“She didn’t deserve to go that way,” Diane Michalski said.

Police had to force their way into the apartment, neighbor Hector Yanez told WLS-TV .

Police have not said if any arrests were made.