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

[madamx]

Hmm or maybe it is the homeowner in the freezer?

Sounds like we have a new version of Clue…. My money is on Col Mustard with the candlestick

In the library!

 

[10ofRods]

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.

The vast majority of people wouldn't put a body (dead or alive) into a freezer.

It is the exception you mention which I find most likely. Someone did put the body into the freezer. They are not a typical person, IMO.

 

[Kemug]

Do we know for sure that the freezer was working? Or did I miss that?

 

[whiterhino]

There aren't very many excuses for putting a body in a freezer!

I'm thinking if someone fell into one, it would take a couple of minutes before death and the body/scene would show some sign of having fallen in accidentally.

It's weird bc as others said, I doubt anyone would say "Here, go to my house" when there is a body in their freezer... Who does that??

 

[SouthAussie]

The DM says that the deceased person is a relative of the out-of-town family. I haven't read that anywhere else, though.

Mystery as 'out-of-town' family discover woman's body in freezer

An investigation is underway after family members visiting San Diego for the holidays found a relative's badly decomposed body.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[10ofRods]

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.

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.

It occurred to me that cost of burying Grandma could be a factor. But hypothetical Grandpa is still an unusual person, as there is public assistance for inexpensive cremations (return of ashes in an urn).

The person in the freezer, btw, could be almost any age - sounds like an adult so far.

Second () scenario seems very unlikely. Who owns the house? Do they never check it? They're just renting it out without cleaning it? (That does happen for sure, there are websites with nightmarish AirBnB stories). There are fairly strict ordinances about lawn upkeep/weed abatement in fire-prone San Diego County. So if the lawn is in good shape, *someone* has been caring for the house.

I haven't seen a neighborhood paper boy in SoCal for a very long time. Not a single one of my neighbors gets a paper newspaper (nor do any of my friends or family in San Diego). My family has had lots of paper delivery people in it - none were kids. It's rarely kids these days - it's rare to see kids on bikes except for right after school and those kids do not spend enough time out to know who is in each house. Last time I saw an attempt to get people to buy newspaper delivery, the free papers were tossed from cars. I have known people with that job - but no "newspaper boys" and it's done in the early hours. I don't know how such a drive by delivery person could know exactly how many people live in my house. Our whole neighborhood is filled with cars, but that car parked in front of my house does not belong to me (or to anyone I know - I just know they leave for work at about 5 am).

I've mentioned the house across the street, but we haven't seen our next door neighbors for months, either. And the people behind us are renters and I know there are at least two of them - but have no clue how many total. There are occasional loud conversations, but I can't tell how many people are there. Number of cars varies from 3-4, but that doesn't mean there are 3-4 people living there. Most people in my neighborhood have more cars than they do people living in the house (we do too). There's an abandoned house across the street from those people - I am convinced zero people live in that one. The house next to that one has a fluctuating group of people, no idea how many, number and type of car varies a lot from week to week.

<modsnip: off topic>

JMO.

 

[CuriousCricket]

The DM says that the deceased person is a relative of the out-of-town family. I haven't read that anywhere else, though.

Mystery as 'out-of-town' family discover woman's body in freezer

An investigation is underway after family members visiting San Diego for the holidays found a relative's badly decomposed body.

www.dailymail.co.uk

exactly. new info:

relative of the discoverers;
"badly decomposed body"
and byline.

Having the body "badly decomposed" puts a different twist onto the story. Wonder if electricity had been shut off to the house?

Wonder why the story was bylined.

 

[Interested_But_Confused]

Spoiler: View of the street and the houses

I can capture all the houses from a certain angle. View attachment 470385View attachment 470383

The house with the unique wall ^^^ is in pics on many news sites, but... It's the blue house next door to the house with the unique wall that has a blur placed on it on google maps. I never saw that, only that house blurs out. Is that common if it's a suspected crime scene? Anybody know? Never saw that before. ​

Not only is blurring something that can be done at the request of LE (and governments, if something sensitive like a military base is visible) but here in the UK you can contact Google and request that your own property be blurred out for privacy reasons. You don't have to be a celebrity, anyone can do it.

 

[Laughing]

Might be time to dust off the DVD/tape player & re-watch:

Bernie (2011) ⭐ 6.8 | Biography, Comedy, Crime

1h 44m | PG-13

www.imdb.com

In small-town Texas, an affable mortician strikes up a friendship with a wealthy widow, though when she starts to become controlling, he goes to great lengths to separate himself from her grasp.

If you don't remember -- guess where her remains are found. Bernie says he wanted to arrange a really nice service for her....

And, in the USA, you can blur your home on GoogleMaps, not sure exactly how but you won't see where my son lives. At the Laughing homestead, Mr. Laughing is standing in the driveway, watching the GoogleCar.

Wonder if that movie is streaming now -- although it does seem ghoulish to watch it at this time.

OOOOooohhh, wonder if there is a copy in That House....

jmho ymmv lrr

 

[DS2021]

Maybe because dead bodies don’t naturally end up in home freezers?

Thats a fair point

 

[DS2021]

The DM says that the deceased person is a relative of the out-of-town family. I haven't read that anywhere else, though.

Mystery as 'out-of-town' family discover woman's body in freezer

An investigation is underway after family members visiting San Diego for the holidays found a relative's badly decomposed body.

www.dailymail.co.uk

That would make sense

 

[ch_13]

Not only is blurring something that can be done at the request of LE (and governments, if something sensitive like a military base is visible) but here in the UK you can contact Google and request that your own property be blurred out for privacy reasons. You don't have to be a celebrity, anyone can do it.

Same in the U.S. Anyone can request that their house is blurred. Also, if the Google Streetview cameras happen to catch your face or your car's license plate you can request those to be blurred as well.

Why You Want to Blur Your Home in Google Maps Street View and How to Do it

Street View is a super useful mapping tool, but it comes with some security risks.

www.cnet.com

 

[10ofRods]

The DM says that the deceased person is a relative of the out-of-town family. I haven't read that anywhere else, though.

Mystery as 'out-of-town' family discover woman's body in freezer

An investigation is underway after family members visiting San Diego for the holidays found a relative's badly decomposed body.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Fascinating! The DM has gotten the details from local ABC outlet. -Good on ABC for clarifying that the deceased is a family member of the out-of-towners! - at least, I hope they verified it. DM doesn't actually give the name of that reporter that I can see and we all know the DM sometimes uses inferences. This is a good example of the talkative neighbor apparently either not knowing the name of who lived there OR the family requesting it be kept private. Or, more likely, the reporter is waiting for LE to announce it officially.

Oi…… if the property owner’s name is what I think it is….

Have I ever said how much I hate common last names? Smith… jones… Johnson…. Welp imo it is one of those names

I think it's something slightly different. I mention this only because it's fairly easy to find out who the owners are. And their ages, etc. My point is that if you and I can find it - so could a reporter, so there has to be a reason that such info is routinely left out of news articles unless it comes from LE or the Courts (just like here on WS).

JMO

 

[Lilibet]

I think it's something slightly different. I mention this only because it's fairly easy to find out who the owners are. And their ages, etc.

Yes, from what I can tell, there is a common name that the owner goes by and a much less common name that is also connected to the owner and two male residents, possibly father and son. The various address search sites I used aren’t always accurate, so grain of salt and all that. But property ownership is usually accurate. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that I suspect that the elderly owner died and was put in the freezer to avoid probate and/or collect Social Security benefits. This is just my thought, not word on the street, as I haven’t contacted my local BIL about this…yet.

Another thought I have is that the messy conditions of the front yard and near the front door are totally out of character for Allied Gardens. The homes in this area were built starting in 1955, and even though they are simple 2-3 bedroom/1-2 bath homes, there is pride of ownership. My BIL bought his 1955 home in 1994 for $165,000 and Zillow says it’s worth over $900,000 now. That’s San Diego for you! So the condition of this house indicates either abandonment or bad renters to me. Or possibly another older relative of the owner being taken advantage of by a younger one in some way. I wonder if the relatives who discovered the body visited because they were suspicious that something untoward was going on.

Allied Gardens, San Diego - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

JMO

 

[charminglane]

Yes, from what I can tell, there is a common name that the owner goes by and a much less common name that is also connected to the owner and two male residents, possibly father and son. The various address search sites I used aren’t always accurate, so grain of salt and all that. But property ownership is usually accurate. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that I suspect that the elderly owner died and was put in the freezer to avoid probate and/or collect Social Security benefits. This is just my thought, not word on the street, as I haven’t contacted my local BIL about this…yet.

Another thought I have is that the messy conditions of the front yard and near the front door are totally out of character for Allied Gardens. The homes in this area were built starting in 1955, and even though they are simple 2-3 bedroom/1-2 bath homes, there is pride of ownership. My BIL bought his 1955 home in 1994 for $165,000 and Zillow says it’s worth over $900,000 now. That’s San Diego for you! So the condition of this house indicates either abandonment or bad renters to me. Or possibly another older relative of the owner being taken advantage of by a younger one in some way. I wonder if the relatives who discovered the body visited because they were suspicious that something untoward was going on.

Allied Gardens, San Diego - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

JMO

"Or possibly another older relative of the owner being taken advantage of by a younger one in some way."

This is my thought as well.

 

[Lilibet]

There are fairly strict ordinances about lawn upkeep/weed abatement in fire-prone San Diego County. So if the lawn is in good shape, *someone* has been caring for the house.

From photos I’ve seen there is no “lawn”….just tall weeds (2-3 feet). I’m really surprised this was allowed to get so bad. Did the neighbors report it and were ignored? I would hate to live next door to something like that. It would creep me out.

 

[truecrimeallthetime]

Wow, I live just 2 blocks away from where this happened!

 

[Lilibet]

Wow, I live just 2 blocks away from where this happened!

Even closer than my BIL. I expect you’ll be taking lots of walks checking it out. ;-)

 

[SouthAussie]

From photos I’ve seen there is no “lawn”….just tall weeds (2-3 feet). I’m really surprised this was allowed to get so bad. Did the neighbors report it and were ignored? I would hate to live next door to something like that. It would creep me out.

In the 2nd photo in this article (an evening shot, with a police car sitting outside) it looks like the weeds had been cut down.

From my Google street-walking, it seems that the high weeds photo is from June 2023 .. when the Google camera took a drive down that street.

Mystery as 'out-of-town' family discover woman's body in freezer

An investigation is underway after family members visiting San Diego for the holidays found a relative's badly decomposed body.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Curious Me]

Thank You for the replies regarding the ability for anyone to request their property be blurred on google. They must've responded quite quickly to the neighbor's request then.

Many of the houses look maintained, and have solar panels. IMO, it's a nice middle class neighborhood. I, too, noticed how overgrown the grass got at one time on the house in the news. Did someone become ill? More than one vehicle in the driveway makes me question how many people lived there; however, I'm not sure those vehicles were moved or driven, maybe it was somebody that liked working on cars.

There's a lot of traffic on Zion Ave, IMO. Always have to be careful pulling out of the Kaiser Hospital parking lot further down the hill going towards Mission Gorge.

There is a school across the street from the freezer house, and the fenced sports field, so in a ideal world, it'd likely be heavily patrolled by the police dept. on school days. ​