Anthony Michael Corrado (Collier County Sheriff’s Office)
A 34-year-old man in Florida was arrested this week for allegedly attacking his grandparents with a hammer — killing his 82-year-old grandmother and severely injuring his grandfather — then calling a housekeeper to help him clean up the crime scene, telling her it was “a real mess.”
Anthony Michael Corrado was taken into custody on Wednesday and charged with one count each of depraved second-degree murder without premeditation and battery intentionally causing bodily harm, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Corrado’s grandmother had an active order for protection against Corrado at the time of her death, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) said in a press release.
According to a redacted affidavit of probable cause, a housekeeper received a call from Corrado at about 2:25 p.m. on May 17 asking if she could come to the residence he shared with his grandparents, telling her there was “a real mess” that he needed help cleaning. When the housekeeper, whose identity was not revealed, asked Corrado how his grandmother was doing, he responded, “She was gone,” an investigator wrote.
At the home, the housekeeper told police she could see blood covering the floor and on Corrado. When the housekeeper asked to see his grandmother, he told her she was in the bedroom, police wrote.
In the bedroom, the housekeeper allegedly found a blue tarp on the floor with what appeared to be a person inside. She told police she could hear shallow breathing or a respirator and asked Corrado if she was still alive.
The housekeeper started to unwrap the tarp and made a grisly discovery, finding the victim “inside the tarp with a plastic bag over her head.”
“When [the housekeeper] attempted to remove the bag from [the victim’s head], Corrado told her to stop and that she would get blood everywhere,” the document states.
Corrado then allegedly told the housekeeper that he needed “her help to get rid of the body.”
“Corrado told her we need to put the body in the car and take it away from the home,” the document states. “Corrado also asked [the housekeeper] to help him disable the home’s security camera system.”
When the housekeeper insisted they call the police, Corrado allegedly responded that they could not, saying, “I’ll go back to prison.” He then said they had to clean the home before his grandfather returned from the grocery store and reiterated that he needed a car to get rid of his grandmother’s body.
The housekeeper told police she was “frightened” and left the residence, saying cleaning supplies from her car. She then drove away “while Corrado tried to stop her” and flagged down a deputy.
The housekeeper told police that when she left, the only people in the home were Corrado and the victim.
Several deputies responded to the home and saw a vehicle had been backed into the driveway and was parked with the trunk open. Investigators believe that when the housekeeper left the home, and deputies arrived, Corrado’s grandfather had returned from the grocery store.
Upon entering the home, deputies said they located the grandfather wrapped in a blanket with “numerous severe injuries to his head and back consistent with hammer blows,” but still alive. He was flown by helicopter to the Gulf Coast Medical Center Trauma unit for treatment.
When taken into custody, Corrado was covered in blood, with deputies saying he had spatter on his “shirt, shorts, boots, both of his shins and his forehead.”
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