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

[MeadowMuffin]

This is just so sad. She was retired army. Worked as a nurse anesthetist for at least 19 years at Kaiser. As a retired PACU nurse I know how tough this job can be. No family/estranged from family. Surely Social Security has information on when she applied for benefits, where the benefits were deposited. Since the gov't prefers direct deposit for SS benefits, the bank they were sent to should be on file. Who had access to this? Plus there may be military benefits as well, depending on length of service I believe. Found in December, it's now end of May. Autopsy results? This is just so frustrating, she deserved better than this.

 

[x_files]

This article says that the people visiting the home during Christmas were not related to Mary Margaret.

Nobody heard from her for 9 years. Then her body was found in a freezer

In December, Mary Margaret Haxby-Jones' body was found in a chest freezer at a home where she once lived. Police are trying to figure out what happened.

www.latimes.com

Nobody heard from her for 9 years. Then her body was found in a freezer

ok, current residents who are renting from?
Not the women in the freezer?! Unless they killed and froze their landlord? Or did they her dead and put her in the freezer?
This is crazy.
Someone put her in the freezer unless she fell in and the lid closed on her.
But who is renting the house and from whom?

"Those visitors are related to a current resident of the home, not to Haxby-Jones, according to Campbell."

 

[ch_13]

"Those visitors are related to a current resident of the home, not to Haxby-Jones, according to Campbell."

Reason #1,789 that getting a hotel room is better than staying with relatives.

 

[Nancy Drew RN]

ok, current residents who are renting from?
Not the women in the freezer?! Unless they killed and froze their landlord? Or did they her dead and put her in the freezer?
This is crazy.
Someone put her in the freezer unless she fell in and the lid closed on her.
But who is renting the house and from whom?

"Those visitors are related to a current resident of the home, not to Haxby-Jones, according to Campbell."

It could also be that someone who was living with Haxby-Jones continued to live in the home after her death/placement in the freezer, and the visitors were related to this person.

 

[x_files]

It could also be that someone who was living with Haxby-Jones continued to live in the home after her death/placement in the freezer, and the visitors were related to this person.

That makes sense but they have no idea how she wound up dead in a freezer. Something is pretty ODD about this!

 

[Ninety5rpm]

Why no autopsy results announced yet?

 

[Incredholt]

Six months after woman found in Allied Gardens freezer, new info about husband

A neighbor told NBC 7 this week that Robert Haxby was hospitalized not long before out-of-town family members reporter the grisly discovery to police last December.

www.nbcsandiego.com

 

[TootsieFootsie]

It did seem like there was more to it than relatives just happening to come to visit.

 

[Curious Me]

Six months after woman found in Allied Gardens freezer, new info about husband

A neighbor told NBC 7 this week that Robert Haxby was hospitalized not long before out-of-town family members reporter the grisly discovery to police last December.

www.nbcsandiego.com

Thanks for posting this update. It's sad all the way around and still no answers. As the news article says, it's all in the hands of the Medical Examiner if they can determine a cause of death. I have posted the link to the Medical Examiner's site several times, and I'll do it again along with this video from the San Diego Medical Examiner's Office.

https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/content/sdc/me/officeoverview.html

​

Examining the Medical Examiner - countysandiego

​

 

[Laura456]

The husband is just... gone? I guess family took him somewhere. Police don't seem too bothered about solving this, sadly. Maybe she passed away and he was so struck with grief he put her in the freezer and then forgot?

 

[TootsieFootsie]

Maybe he passed away too, in hospital ?

Not sure why it all has to be such a mystery.

 

[Curious Me]

​

Maybe he passed away too, in hospital ?
Not sure why it all has to be such a mystery.

They can't just go releasing info through improper channels or chain of command. This is how an investigation is carried out; otherwise they can be sued for making unauthorized announcements about family members. The cause of death has to come from the Medical Examiner, no other agency.

Concerning Mary Margaret, it's up to the M.E. to determine cause of death. As for her husband possibly having a stroke, some people are unable to communicate after a stroke, and he may be in a nursing home now. If the husband died it could probably be found out through a private search. MOO, the person most likely to know more about the past and what went on would, most likely, be the son mentioned in the article. (see below)

Six months after woman found in Allied Gardens freezer, new info about husband

A neighbor told NBC 7 this week that Robert Haxby was hospitalized not long before out-of-town family members reporter the grisly discovery to police last December.

www.nbcsandiego.com

Since then, the medical examiner has had custody of her corpse. During the past half-year, NBC San Diego has reached out nearly once a month out for an update and been told the case is sealed by the San Diego Police Department. For SDPD's part during the same time period, officials have said there will be no updates on the case until the medical examiner has determined a cause of death.

[...]

The woman told NBC 7, though, she didn't think the son lived there but had been seen a couple times at the home after the body was discovered.

Earlier this week, the information about Haxby and the couple's son being at the home while Haxby-Jones was missing was confirmed by the neighbor's stepson, who has lived with his stepmother in her Allied Garden for the past three years.​

 

[Curious Me]

Watch the Medical Examiners Video I posted above. It says they're part doctors, part detectives, and part grief counselors. It's a unique facility. The San Diego Medical Examiners Office gets 11,000 deaths to investigate per year. That's 900 deaths per month.

More than a quarter of them need their state of the art lab work. There's much more involved than you might imagine.

In Mary-Margaret's case, it had been nine years and I don't know if that makes it harder for them to determine the cause of her death. ​

 

[TootsieFootsie]

DBM

 

[Kittypoo]

Six months after woman found in Allied Gardens freezer, new info about husband

A neighbor told NBC 7 this week that Robert Haxby was hospitalized not long before out-of-town family members reporter the grisly discovery to police last December.

www.nbcsandiego.com

So it was the house with the unusual wall out front and not the blue house

 

[nhmemorymaker]

They can't just go releasing info through improper channels or chain of command. This is how an investigation is carried out; otherwise they can be sued for making unauthorized announcements about family members. The cause of death has to come from the Medical Examiner, no other agency.

Concerning Mary Margaret, it's up to the M.E. to determine cause of death. As for her husband possibly having a stroke, some people are unable to communicate after a stroke, and he may be in a nursing home now. If the husband died it could probably be found out through a private search. MOO, the person most likely to know more about the past and what went on would, most likely, be the son mentioned in the article. (see below)

Six months after woman found in Allied Gardens freezer, new info about husband

A neighbor told NBC 7 this week that Robert Haxby was hospitalized not long before out-of-town family members reporter the grisly discovery to police last December.

www.nbcsandiego.com

Since then, the medical examiner has had custody of her corpse. During the past half-year, NBC San Diego has reached out nearly once a month out for an update and been told the case is sealed by the San Diego Police Department. For SDPD's part during the same time period, officials have said there will be no updates on the case until the medical examiner has determined a cause of death.

[...]

The woman told NBC 7, though, she didn't think the son lived there but had been seen a couple times at the home after the body was discovered.

Earlier this week, the information about Haxby and the couple's son being at the home while Haxby-Jones was missing was confirmed by the neighbor's stepson, who has lived with his stepmother in her Allied Garden for the past three years.​

The article was long, but did seem to add questions, as well as try to show the people around.

I really thought we were pretty sure there were no children between Haxby and Haxby-Jones.... so that now has me more confused. How could a child handle a mother missing for all those years?

AND... does anyone remember early conversations regarding Jones and Haxby?
I find no marriage records in Ancestry.
I know she used Haxby-Jones in the earlier San Diego directories, BUT why should we assume they were married?????

 

[Cedars]

The article was long, but did seem to add questions, as well as try to show the people around.

I really thought we were pretty sure there were no children between Haxby and Haxby-Jones.... so that now has me more confused. How could a child handle a mother missing for all those years?

AND... does anyone remember early conversations regarding Jones and Haxby?
I find no marriage records in Ancestry.
I know she used Haxby-Jones in the earlier San Diego directories, BUT why should we assume they were married?????

I assume the 'son' was, technically, a stepson of Mary's.

I recall the woman who initially spoke to the media, a 'relative by marriage', said she hadn't seen Mary since 1995. If this woman is connected with the son, perhaps he hadn't seen Mary since 1995.either. That woman mentioned 'an estrangement'. We all assumed it was an estrangement between Mary and her family, but perhaps it was estrangement between the son and Haxby/Jones? Just speculating, but it could explain why no one realized Mary was missing.

Many older people who have been through divorce (eg my father) don't get legally married again, since they have separate finances and will not be having children. They just live together, and are treated as though married.

JMO

 

[summergirl1]

An updated version of the article says the Medical Examiner said they had no record of a recent death of a Robert Haxby. Six months after woman found in Allied Gardens freezer, new info about husband He's probably in assisted living or a nursing home somewhere. He may not be able to come home even if the home wasn't the scene of a crime.

It's possible her death was natural, and he just covered it up for financial reasons. He seems like he would have had some retirement income himself, but maybe he would have had to move and lead a more restricted lifestyle without her financial contribution and he didn't want to. Still, that conclusion seems odd, perhaps, because the vast majority of cases where someone's death isn't reported for financial reasons, it's usually by the person's children or younger people, not their spouse/partner of a similar age.

She retired in 1999, when she was only in her fifties, so it sounds like she had health issues. If she was murdered, you wonder what led to that after they had been together a long time. She wanted to split up? He wanted his son to move in? Hmm. I did find an article that said the relatives who found her body were not blood related to her. Even if she was murdered, and they think they can prove it, and the husband/partner could be charged, he may not be in a state where he's competent to be charged.

If it was just financial fraud, he may not be in a state where he can be charged either. If either of those are true, they would probably announce it, though. Some crime was committed, but financial fraud is much less of a crime than murder. If they can't ever figure out how she died, and he can't or won't talk, then the case may never be closed, officially, although it's very possible the evidence leans one way or another, and without a solid cause of death it wouldn't stand up in court-if he could even be charged.

I wonder if the son or someone else did live there for a time as well as her husband/partner, as some of the police calls made after her death, or just before it (the year before, possibly) don't seem to point to just one person or the couple living there. Maybe some other relative of his killed her, and he just covered it up. Or he committed the financial fraud to help a relative of his, not himself.

Maybe, although this is more remote, as she seems to have been a respectable retiree, her death was drug related, and he feared legal charges, so covered it up. There was apparently an overdose call in the years after (or even possibly before) she died. I didn't looked up the exact years, although I think they are online somewhere. And perhaps, she wanted him to help her commit assisted suicide (due to health issues) and he did so, but fearing charges covered it up? Or she was suffering from medical issues, and he killed her just because in his opinion it was putting her out of her pain, but obviously didn't want to report it. There could be other explanations than the more straightforward ones, if she was killed, or even if only financial fraud was committed. Just some thoughts.