Overview

• Elizabeth Caruso flew from New Jersey to Miami Beach on Saturday for a welfare check at her son’s apartment building
• Officers discovered the 63-year-old retired special education teacher’s body inside the trash room on Sunday following a visible trail of blood
• An autopsy found Caruso suffered near-decapitation wounds and multiple fractures to her arms, hands, face and head
• Forty-year-old Anthony Caruso barricaded himself in his apartment, triggering an eight-hour SWAT standoff resolved with a K-9 unit and Taser
• Court records show the suspect was on probation for prior violent offenses and has a documented history of mental illness