Identified! CA - Out-of-town family finds unidentified body in freezer of home they were staying at - Dec 23, 2023 - Mary Margaret Haxby-Jones

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I’m surprised no one in the family has spoken on record/ in the news. I’m wondering if this means they know who this is. If this was a random person they likely would be speaking to the news as bystanders of this unfortunate situation.

This is my unqualified opinion and I could very well be wrong.
 
I'm curious if the out-of-towners were at the property by themselves, or if the homeowner was on-site.

And if they were there, would you first confront your relative, or would you just secretly call the police?
I think I'd have a deep respect for how much space was left vacant in that freezer, and suddenly remember an item I absolutely had to buy from the shops, no, it can't wait, sure, I'll be back soon. And then I would get out of sight of the house, pull over, and call the police immediately.

MOO
 
New Story. Nothing New. Out-of-town family members find dead body in home freezer


One of the stories did say the freezer was inside the house.

However, this is the most decidedly "not going there" lack of coverage - even at Christmas - I've ever seen for an event.

48 hours - or close. NO! Bad math. Closer to 72 hours. Body reported before noon on Friday. 24 hours on Saturday, 48 and Sunday and 72 NOW -- Noon Monday or close now. Camera crew(s) has been out and talked to at least two neighbors.

Did no one think to ask if anyone was known to live in the house?
When the out-of-town guests showed up, was everyone accounted for?

Or had Aunt Sally vanished and it's possible the woman in the freezer will be Aunt Sally? Or do they have one body and 4 missing?

Maybe no one had lived in the house for years, since the owner died and was sensibly buried. Relatives had come into town to decide what to do with the property and discovered this nightmarish mystery. Body could be anyone from anywhere. Person stashing it had only to know the house was empty.

But, hey San Diego journalists -- even a young and inexperienced Nancy Drew would have uncovered more in this time than YOU have. No hungry journalists in San Diego? How about California? Why is the coverage on this so lacking? It has the possibilities of developing into a massive story - or fizzling completely. But you won't know 'til you dig in.

There's not much real time journalism in California, IMO. While television stringers usually have some background in journalism, they are usually young, inexperienced and IMO, chosen mainly for their looks and ability to report on the spot, not to do investigative journalism. In 2021 (last year for which I have data) there were 2,495 intentional homicides in California - and only a small fraction ever made it to Websleuths.

I don't personally post the murders from my own town (there was one last week) because I prefer not to be associated specifically with my own town. Two bodies discovered within a couple of miles of my house in the past year (there's a specific place where bodies sometimes turn up, not too far from the beach). Not only have I not posted about them - but there was virtually no journalism around any of these deaths.

Thing is, our local newspaper died 10 years ago and the name was purchased by the USA Today corporation. We've had at least 15 short term (young) reporters since then. This has happened all over and while the San Diego Union-Tribune appears to be a local paper, both it and the L.A. Times require a subscription to actually read local articles. There was apparently a murder in Lancaster recently - but only the Times is reporting on it (27 year old teacher) and an arrest has been made - it's behind a pay wall. But aside from having someone sitting at a desk check online police blotters, I doubt they have assigned a reporter to the story (too expensive).

I simply check Nextdoor and Twitter for my own local crime news - neither involves journalism. I have an IPC card myself, but do not work for any newspaper. I've thought about starting a crime-related publication now that I'm retired, but it wouldn't focus on local news stories.

Anyway, a mysterious body found in a freezer is just one of 50 or so weekly homicide stories (if it is a homicide). Missing person cases rarely make the news.

There are currently 3,362 people missing/open cases in California, most of them are not on WS and most do not have any MSM reporting them. FB and Nextdoor would be my only resources for finding those stories, although I do read news from the Sierra Nevada area, so occasionally post one of those stories (usually someone has beat me to it). I also look at NPS news from time to time. But unless there's something quirky about the case, there's no one doing ongoing coverage on these missing people and it just depends on exactly where they live whether there's even a newspaper available to cover the story. Exceptions include double homicides (or larger groups of victims). Any school shooting will of course make national news, as would any press release about a suspected serial killer (I just checked and we did have a suspected serial killer arrested in L.A. County in early December - I knew nothing about it, as I don't watch TV news!)

I keep trying to talk students into going into journalism - I think maybe 1 student in the past 5 years has considered it.

Just checked the local (USA Today-owned) paper and they have exactly 1 investigative journalist - who writes for as many as 10 papers. Her phone number is available for anyone to call if they have a lead. I doubt anyone has actually waded through the staff directory to try and find her and I don't see any stories about my locale or our county or the next two counties over by this person. She's a managing editor for another paper, is a freelance journalist, etc - and the stories she covers are all over the country. She's an investigative reporter for newspapers all along the West Coast (mostly Washington and California), but has also published in the WSJ. Her stories often have national interest (mostly in the arts, not in criminal investigative journalism).

Indeed, I depend on Websleuths to clue me in on what's happening in my part of the world!

JMO.
 
Anyway, a mysterious body found in a freezer is just one of 50 or so weekly homicide stories (if it is a homicide). Missing person cases rarely make the news.
Snipped for focus

This isn't a story like the nameless others, though, IMO: most people can relate to the horror of opening the freezer door and finding a rigor-mortised corpse therein. It's not your everyday drive-by, at least at first blush.

And it's like Halloween on Christmas: totally the wrong theme for the moment. True, there's "Christmas in July", but that's for the VERY strange; you just don't mix the metaphors of spooky and elfin, skeletons and reindeer. Día de los muertos is pointedly not on Christmas. Walpurgisnacht doesn't come close to advent. The head just can't really manage all that, which makes it wildly disconcerting, thus attention-getting..

Now I'm afraid to open my freezer door....
 
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But then surely everyone would be 'where's Grandma at?' long before anyone started digging through the whitegoods.

And if extended family was in on the scam, they wouldn't be surprised and would have kept it quiet, not called the cops.

MOO

There are plenty of older people whose whereabouts are known only to a handful of family members - or, perhaps, to only one person (such as an adult child living in the home).

One of my aunts died and no one in the family found out about it right away.

Her daughter died young, she was estranged from her grandchildren. She had put a church member on her emergency forms, and eventually that person found my dad and sent him a note with her phone number, so dad got a few details. She got the info off of genealogy site. Her grandchildren hadn't inquired about her at any point in their adult lives (and no one blamed them, we all understood the situation). I found my cousin via his professional identity and let him know. I haven't seen him since he was around 8 years old. My aunt was not on speaking terms with any of her siblings.

In cases where people *do* hide bodies for this reason, it's usually either a child of the deceased - or in a case here in SoCal, the grandchild. But there are cases where it's been a friend or live-in carer as well.

Snipped for focus

This isn't a story like the nameless others, though, IMO: most people can relate to the horror of opening the freezer door and finding a rigor-mortised corpse therein. It's not your everyday drive-by, at least at first blush.

And it's like Halloween on Christmas: totally the wrong theme for the moment. True, there's "Christmas in July", but that's for the VERY strange; you just don't mix the metaphors of spooky and elfin, skeletons and reindeer. Día de los muertos is pointedly not on Christmas. Walpurgisnacht doesn't come close to advent. The head just can't really manage all that, which makes it wildly disconcerting, thus attention-getting..

Now I'm afraid to open my freezer door....

Yep, and I figure that's why it's in the papers and here on WS. It has that extra something that a mere shooting in a downtown alley does not have. I personally have no expectations that the neighbors know much about it and therefore, a young journalist who stops by isn't going to get much.

Probably going to take LE some time to figure out what happened. If the freezer was still plugged in, I figure the ME might be able to figure out CoD.

I'm staring at the house across the street where two elderly people live (they are in their 80's) and just realized I haven't seen them for weeks. I assume they went somewhere for the holidays? RV is still in the front yard. Lights were not on last night, but truthfully, I haven't been paying attention. I know no one who knows them, I just know her first name and that's it. I know they have kids in Oklahoma, so I just assume that's where they are.

::shivers::
 
There's not much real time journalism in California, IMO. While television stringers usually have some background in journalism, they are usually young, inexperienced and IMO, chosen mainly for their looks and ability to report on the spot, not to do investigative journalism. In 2021 (last year for which I have data) there were 2,495 intentional homicides in California - and only a small fraction ever made it to Websleuths.

I don't personally post the murders from my own town (there was one last week) because I prefer not to be associated specifically with my own town. Two bodies discovered within a couple of miles of my house in the past year (there's a specific place where bodies sometimes turn up, not too far from the beach). Not only have I not posted about them - but there was virtually no journalism around any of these deaths.

Thing is, our local newspaper died 10 years ago and the name was purchased by the USA Today corporation. We've had at least 15 short term (young) reporters since then. This has happened all over and while the San Diego Union-Tribune appears to be a local paper, both it and the L.A. Times require a subscription to actually read local articles. There was apparently a murder in Lancaster recently - but only the Times is reporting on it (27 year old teacher) and an arrest has been made - it's behind a pay wall. But aside from having someone sitting at a desk check online police blotters, I doubt they have assigned a reporter to the story (too expensive).

I simply check Nextdoor and Twitter for my own local crime news - neither involves journalism. I have an IPC card myself, but do not work for any newspaper. I've thought about starting a crime-related publication now that I'm retired, but it wouldn't focus on local news stories.

Anyway, a mysterious body found in a freezer is just one of 50 or so weekly homicide stories (if it is a homicide). Missing person cases rarely make the news.

There are currently 3,362 people missing/open cases in California, most of them are not on WS and most do not have any MSM reporting them. FB and Nextdoor would be my only resources for finding those stories, although I do read news from the Sierra Nevada area, so occasionally post one of those stories (usually someone has beat me to it). I also look at NPS news from time to time. But unless there's something quirky about the case, there's no one doing ongoing coverage on these missing people and it just depends on exactly where they live whether there's even a newspaper available to cover the story. Exceptions include double homicides (or larger groups of victims). Any school shooting will of course make national news, as would any press release about a suspected serial killer (I just checked and we did have a suspected serial killer arrested in L.A. County in early December - I knew nothing about it, as I don't watch TV news!)

I keep trying to talk students into going into journalism - I think maybe 1 student in the past 5 years has considered it.

Just checked the local (USA Today-owned) paper and they have exactly 1 investigative journalist - who writes for as many as 10 papers. Her phone number is available for anyone to call if they have a lead. I doubt anyone has actually waded through the staff directory to try and find her and I don't see any stories about my locale or our county or the next two counties over by this person. She's a managing editor for another paper, is a freelance journalist, etc - and the stories she covers are all over the country. She's an investigative reporter for newspapers all along the West Coast (mostly Washington and California), but has also published in the WSJ. Her stories often have national interest (mostly in the arts, not in criminal investigative journalism).

Indeed, I depend on Websleuths to clue me in on what's happening in my part of the world!

JMO.
Great post.
 
There's not much real time journalism in California, IMO. While television stringers usually have some background in journalism, they are usually young, inexperienced and IMO, chosen mainly for their looks and ability to report on the spot, not to do investigative journalism. In 2021 (last year for which I have data) there were 2,495 intentional homicides in California - and only a small fraction ever made it to Websleuths.

I don't personally post the murders from my own town (there was one last week) because I prefer not to be associated specifically with my own town. Two bodies discovered within a couple of miles of my house in the past year (there's a specific place where bodies sometimes turn up, not too far from the beach). Not only have I not posted about them - but there was virtually no journalism around any of these deaths.

Thing is, our local newspaper died 10 years ago and the name was purchased by the USA Today corporation. We've had at least 15 short term (young) reporters since then. This has happened all over and while the San Diego Union-Tribune appears to be a local paper, both it and the L.A. Times require a subscription to actually read local articles. There was apparently a murder in Lancaster recently - but only the Times is reporting on it (27 year old teacher) and an arrest has been made - it's behind a pay wall. But aside from having someone sitting at a desk check online police blotters, I doubt they have assigned a reporter to the story (too expensive).

I simply check Nextdoor and Twitter for my own local crime news - neither involves journalism. I have an IPC card myself, but do not work for any newspaper. I've thought about starting a crime-related publication now that I'm retired, but it wouldn't focus on local news stories.

Anyway, a mysterious body found in a freezer is just one of 50 or so weekly homicide stories (if it is a homicide). Missing person cases rarely make the news.

There are currently 3,362 people missing/open cases in California, most of them are not on WS and most do not have any MSM reporting them. FB and Nextdoor would be my only resources for finding those stories, although I do read news from the Sierra Nevada area, so occasionally post one of those stories (usually someone has beat me to it). I also look at NPS news from time to time. But unless there's something quirky about the case, there's no one doing ongoing coverage on these missing people and it just depends on exactly where they live whether there's even a newspaper available to cover the story. Exceptions include double homicides (or larger groups of victims). Any school shooting will of course make national news, as would any press release about a suspected serial killer (I just checked and we did have a suspected serial killer arrested in L.A. County in early December - I knew nothing about it, as I don't watch TV news!)

I keep trying to talk students into going into journalism - I think maybe 1 student in the past 5 years has considered it.

Just checked the local (USA Today-owned) paper and they have exactly 1 investigative journalist - who writes for as many as 10 papers. Her phone number is available for anyone to call if they have a lead. I doubt anyone has actually waded through the staff directory to try and find her and I don't see any stories about my locale or our county or the next two counties over by this person. She's a managing editor for another paper, is a freelance journalist, etc - and the stories she covers are all over the country. She's an investigative reporter for newspapers all along the West Coast (mostly Washington and California), but has also published in the WSJ. Her stories often have national interest (mostly in the arts, not in criminal investigative journalism).

Indeed, I depend on Websleuths to clue me in on what's happening in my part of the world!

JMO.
So true! Whenever there is a major event that I see "reported" in the news....I come right to WS to get the real scoop. No joke.

Amateur opinion and speculation
 
New Story. Nothing New. Out-of-town family members find dead body in home freezer


One of the stories did say the freezer was inside the house.

However, this is the most decidedly "not going there" lack of coverage - even at Christmas - I've ever seen for an event.

48 hours - or close. NO! Bad math. Closer to 72 hours. Body reported before noon on Friday. 24 hours on Saturday, 48 and Sunday and 72 NOW -- Noon Monday or close now. Camera crew(s) has been out and talked to at least two neighbors.

Did no one think to ask if anyone was known to live in the house?
When the out-of-town guests showed up, was everyone accounted for?

Or had Aunt Sally vanished and it's possible the woman in the freezer will be Aunt Sally? Or do they have one body and 4 missing?

Maybe no one had lived in the house for years, since the owner died and was sensibly buried. Relatives had come into town to decide what to do with the property and discovered this nightmarish mystery. Body could be anyone from anywhere. Person stashing it had only to know the house was empty.

But, hey San Diego journalists -- even a young and inexperienced Nancy Drew would have uncovered more in this time than YOU have. No hungry journalists in San Diego? How about California? Why is the coverage on this so lacking? It has the possibilities of developing into a massive story - or fizzling completely. But you won't know 'til you dig in.
Are they sure it isn't just a mannequin?
 
The Medical Examiner's Office is working to determine the cause of death.

Due to the state of the body, it is not yet clear if there has been any traumatic injury....

I think the criticism of journalism doesn't apply when the info has to come from authorized sources regarding the actual details of the investigation. Sure I want to know more about the body found in the freezer in town recently. Not at all surprised at the delay of pending info regarding the body found in a freezer though. It's not uncommon to hear on the news they found a dead body someplace, and there usually is a delay in sharing info with the public because the info has to come from a trusted source, not a journalist's limited view of the findings until it's shared by an investigating source. Can't expect instant authorized info. This just happened 12/23/23 in the middle of the Christmas holiday. It takes time, People.

Granted the delay from the Medical Examiners office has been noted before and in the news. The ME Department is understaffed for the amount of deaths in this big city.


The combination of too many cases and not enough staff prompted the county to post a warning on its website that it could take up to six months for causes of death to be determined or cases to be closed.
Help may be on the way: Chief Medical Examiner Steven Campman has asked the Board of Supervisors to approve a 10 percent increase in staffing in the coming year, which would add six positions to the 66-person office. In addition, pay raises are being proposed to try to make jobs more attractive to applicants.


All this is MOO. Think we need to have patience.
 
Continued from my post above ^^^ as a reminder this is in the hands of the ME and SDPD now.

Video included

Currently, the cause of death is unknown and must be determined by the Medical Examiner's Office. Police said that given the state of the body, it was unclear if there were any traumatic injuries.
 
Continued from my post above ^^^ as a reminder this is in the hands of the ME and SDPD now.

Video included

Currently, the cause of death is unknown and must be determined by the Medical Examiner's Office. Police said that given the state of the body, it was unclear if there were any traumatic injuries.
Well, wait a minute....

@10ofRods
If a body is flash-frozen, signs of traumatic injury, if any, would be observable, yes?

Maybe there was a delay getting it into the freezer? Thus the "state of the body" that would eliminate traces of injury.
 
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Well, wait a minute....

@10ofRods
If a body is flash-frozen, signs of traumatic injury, if any, would be observable, yes?

Maybe there was a delay getting it into the freezer? Thus the "state of the body".
Sorry to be ghoulish, but perhaps the body had been “dismantled” to fit in the freezer…

Amateur opinion and speculation
 
Sorry to be ghoulish, but perhaps the body had been “dismantled” to fit in the freezer…

Amateur opinion and speculation

Possible. Although I personally think that would have been mentioned. But maybe not.

If it was "body parts," they would have no way of knowing immediately if all the parts were there. It was a body intact enough to sex it.

Well, wait a minute....

@10ofRods
If a body is flash-frozen, signs of traumatic injury, if any, would be observable, yes?

Maybe there was a delay getting it into the freezer? Thus the "state of the body".

I am envisioning a regular old chest freezer, like the ones we have. Not anything capable of "flash freezing" as one would find on a fishing vessel. Flash freezing capability, even in the best of freezers (upright ones are better at this) is still not all that flash.

But, the state of decay (when put into the freezer) would be testable, yes. If there was a delay in getting it to the freezer, absolutely forensic testing can tell that. This is something you can do at home with a roast, if you wanted to. If you leave it until it starts to decay and then freeze it, you can still smell the decay - which is coming from biochemicals - and those are testable, even before a complete defrost.

I don't consider these discussions "ghoulish," of course. For all we know, it was body parts (and LE is suppressing that information).

It would make a difference in which crimes the culprit is charged with. They probably want him/her to come in quietly and they probably have a good idea who did it.

LE has clearly said that there are no immediate signs of traumatic injury (being dismembered would be high on the list of traumatic injury - and no way of telling immediately if it happened pre- or post-mortem - we've looked at a couple of cases here on WS in the past year in which someone attacked someone else with a chainsaw or reciprocating saw).

I'm going with "person died and was put into the freezer." Our larger chest freezer is completely capable of holding the body of most average sized women (and larger). Or an average sized man, for that matter - but would be hard to put someone over 6 feet into it, unless they were really skinny.

I envision a scenario in which a relative was living in the house as a kind of caretaker. Person died, they freaked out and used the freezer, then ran off somewhere. The fear of being questioned by police may have been present. They'll figure out who she is and get her medical records, that will help. And if she's been frozen since near her moment of death, they can find lots of things to study inside her body to try and figure out CoD.

She didn't put herself in the freezer! (Or at least, that's very unlikely - I suppose someone could suicide in this manner, but...that would be the first time I've heard of such a thing!)
 
I envision a scenario in which a relative was living in the house as a kind of caretaker. Person died, they freaked out and used the freezer, then ran off somewhere. The fear of being questioned by police may have been present

I think the vast majority of people wouldn't behave in this way. Unless they had been neglecting the person or wanted to keep collecting their benefits, most people's natural reaction would be to call for help. JMO.
 
I think the vast majority of people wouldn't behave in this way. Unless they had been neglecting the person or wanted to keep collecting their benefits, most people's natural reaction would be to call for help. JMO....
To keep collecting benefits seems likely, or fear they couldn't afford the cost of burial. If foul play, then there was fear their involvement would be discovered.

Perhaps it was a mercy killing to end the suffering of a loved one, and rather than face the law they decided to hide the body in the freezer. It could've been a drug overdose and the person supplying the drugs didn't want to be arrested. Hope we find out. (I don't think it's Maya Millete though, although I did think that was astounding putting it together as a possibility.)
If a body is flash-frozen, signs of traumatic injury, if any, would be observable, yes?... Maybe there was a delay getting it into the freezer?
Good questions. The way it's worded sounds like the body wasn't in a perfect state to determine.
Police say because of the state the body is in, it's unclear if there was any traumatic injury. Homicide investigators believe the body was a woman's, but other details like their age or race weren't able to be made during the initial investigation. (BBM) Body found in freezer in Allied Gardens, suspicious death investigation underway
 
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Snipped for focus

This isn't a story like the nameless others, though, IMO: most people can relate to the horror of opening the freezer door and finding a rigor-mortised corpse therein.

And it's like Halloween on Christmas: totally the wrong theme for the moment. True, there's "Christmas in July", but that's for the VERY strange; you just don't mix the metaphors of spooky and elfin.
The bare bones of this story are so intriguing a dozen or so great books have a starting place.

Let's say it is Grandma in the freezer and she died of natural causes. Now, it is my personal opinion that the funeral industry has price death beyond the reach of many people. Grandma dies. Grandpa checks prices. Not gonna do that. Into the freezer grandma goes. He has no choice but to continue receiving her money. Then Grandpa dies. Funeral held -- but closest relatives unable to attend. Plan to visit area at Christmas to deal with the the property. Oops. Grandma pops up.

Or, Ms Suzy was living alone and some young thugs rob her. She dies of a heart attack. They dither around and stuff her into freezer and wait to be discovered. Aren't. So, do they rob other people living alone, stuffing them into freezers? I did a quick "drive around the Google block" and didn't see neglected yards, so unless they've painted themselves into a permanent job of lawn care, young thugs are not taking out the elderly residents. But change a fact or two and you've got a jim-dandy story.
So this was another family members home, not a rental or B&B, correct?

Where are/were the homeowners?

Family in the freezer or a stranger? Perhaps the homeowner went "on vacation"?!
If a journalist had been "working" this story, these are the type answers we would have by now. Ownership of the property is a matter of public record and available by subscription to all sorts of professions: realtors, appraisers, private eyes, reporters and newspaper employees, etc. Sometimes, just entering the address in Google would have disclosed if it is available for rent. Asking a neighborhood boy will tell you exactly how many people lived there, their ages and anything else you need to know. Kids slide around and know these things. Not all kids will talk to strangers, but others love the attention. The official medical pronouncements will come from official reports by specific people authorized to make those calls. HOWEVER, stories and articles don't just happen - handed as press releases from the great govt on high. You dig in and you talk to people. Who knows where the "leads" may take you.
 

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