Rhode Island couple charged with murder after body found on property covered up by concrete

© Mary Murphy/Providence Journal via AP, Pool
Steven Pietrowicz, Jr., center, of Burrillville, R.I., is arraigned on a murder charge in Providence District Court in Providence, R.I., for the murder of Domingo Ortiz of Worcester, Mass.

    

A Rhode Island couple was ordered held without bail Monday in the killing of a Massachusetts man whose body was found under newly poured concrete at the couple's home nearly a month after he went missing.

Steven Pietrowicz, 39, and Michelle Morin, 40, were arraigned on charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder and obstruction of a police officer. A bail hearing was scheduled for June 15.

Morin was arrested late Saturday in Worcester, Massachusetts, where she and Pietrowicz previously lived. She waived extradition Monday and agreed to be returned to Rhode Island to face charges.

Pietrowicz was already in custody on charges of domestic assault.

© Rick Cinclair/Worcester Telegram & Gazette via AP, Pool
Michelle A. Morin, center, is arraigned in Worcester District Court in Worcester, Mass. Monday, June 1, 2015, with her attorney Michael Hussey, left, for the murder of Domingo Ortiz of Worcester, Mass.

    

The body of 60-year-old Domingo Ortiz, of Worcester, was found Friday beneath a newly constructed deck adjacent to the home Pietrowicz and Morin were renting. The body was located in a four-to-five-foot hole covered by large rocks and a layer of concrete, police said.

Ortiz had been beaten with an object and his legs may have been tied up, police said. An autopsy had not been completed Monday. Ortiz had been missing since May 5 and was last seen getting into the couple's car that day in Worcester, police said.

Pietrowicz and Morin told police they'd had an argument with Ortiz that evening but said that he'd left the home the morning of May 6. An initial search of the couple's home turned up broken furniture and evidence of cleaning with a strong bleach product, police said.

Police have not offered a motive for the killing.