FL-Miami, Woman's body found inside freezer at Dollar Tree Store, Dec. 14, 2025

[PatLaurel]

Woman's body found inside freezer at Dollar Tree in Miami

According to Miami Police, at 8 a.m., officers arrived at the Dollar Tree at 968 SW 8th Street after an employee made a call and said there was a dead woman inside the store.​

 

[PatLaurel]

As with all developing news, the details vary from one report to another.

Local10 initially states that the woman was in a freezer, but later report that she was in a cooler. Two different things, imo.

" Officers said they located the woman inside a cooler in the back of the store. Authorities are investigating the death, which is currently being treated as an unclassified death."

Woman found dead inside freezer at Miami Dollar Tree, cops say

 

[IceIce9]

Woman's body found inside freezer at Dollar Tree in Miami

According to Miami Police, at 8 a.m., officers arrived at the Dollar Tree at 968 SW 8th Street after an employee made a call and said there was a dead woman inside the store.​

From your linked article

Police said they don't suspect foul play at the moment and are working to find out how long the woman was in the freezer, how she got there and if she's an employee at the store.

If the freezer door was not locked, probably no foul play? Unless she was put into the freezer unconscious or already deceased.

 

[PatLaurel]

If the freezer door was not locked, probably no foul play? Unless she was put into the freezer unconscious or already deceased.

I'm not sure what they mean by "freezer". I understand getting locked in a walk-in freezer, although it should never happen since safety releases are required by law. What I don't understand is how a person could be trapped by accident in an upright display freezer, as the doors permit outward pushing, also required by law. MOO JMO

 

[Spectrix]

I'm really puzzled.
A woman who is not an employee is discovered in a freezer in the back of the store.

The police are trying to to work out how long she's been there and how she got in there, but they don't suspect foul play.

So... she somehow got into the back of a Dollar Tree store and cryogenically froze herself on purpose?

-

 

[PatLaurel]

Police ID woman found dead inside freezer at Miami Dollar Tree

Investigators identified the woman on Sunday afternoon as 32-year-old Massiell Garay Sanchez.

 

[PatLaurel]

Police ID woman found dead inside freezer at Miami Dollar Tree

Investigators identified the woman on Sunday afternoon as 32-year-old Massiell Garay Sanchez.

BBM
Other sources are identifying the woman as Helen Massiell Garay Sanchez.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/little-havana/article313695983.html

Officers got to the discount store, 968 SW Eighth St. in Little Havana, around 8 a.m. after an employee found the woman later identified by police as 32-year-old Helen Massiell Garay Sanchez. As of Sunday afternoon, “It’s an Unclassified Death,” Miami police officer Michael Vega wrote in an email, but “we have to wait for the medical examiner’s report.”

 

[Spectrix]

I went searching for an update hoping for some answers, but the additional information has only raised further questions

According to Miami Police, the woman, later identified as 32-year-old Helen Massiell Garay Sanchez, was found inside the Dollar Tree's freezer.

"Complainant found a naked female in the cooler of the store," dispatchers are heard saying over the police scanners.

According to a GoFundMe page said to be set up by her family, Garay was a physician originally from Nicaragua. The fundraiser page described Garay as a devoted doctor and a beloved mother of two children.

The page said Garay was an anesthesiologist who specialized in congenital heart disease, noting that her work brought "hope and healing to countless children and families." According to the fundraising page, Garay died following what the family described as a "tragic accident while abroad."

Questions linger after woman from Nicaragua is found dead inside Dollar Tree freezer in Miami

Miami police are investigating after a 32-year-old woman was found dead inside a Dollar Tree freezer in Little Havana.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[tlcya]

truly bizarre. It is not uncommon for those suffering hypothermia to remove their clothing as the cold during its final phases can be translated by the body as a burning prickly heat sensation causing victims to remove their clothing. but what on earth would have caused her to be in the freezer in the first place? I am assuming it is not readily accessible to patrons?
-------
Police said Sanchez entered the store before it closed on Saturday, Dec. 13, but did not purchase anything, according to WTVJ and WPLG.

Sanchez then allegedly went to a restricted employee-only area of the business and entered the freezer, where she stayed overnight. An employee found her the next morning.

Police do not believe foul play is involved with the woman’s death, according to WFTV and WPLG.
Mom of 2 Found Dead After She Mysteriously Walked into Dollar Tree Freezer

 

[Spectrix]

Police said Sanchez entered the store before it closed on Saturday, Dec. 13, but did not purchase anything, according to WTVJ and WPLG.

Sanchez then allegedly went to a restricted employee-only area of the business and entered the freezer, where she stayed overnight. An employee found her the next morning.

Police do not believe foul play is involved with the woman’s death, according to WFTV and WPLG.

Mom of 2 Found Dead After She Mysteriously Walked into Dollar Tree Freezer

A mom has been found dead inside a freezer at a Dollar Tree in Florida, according to police.

people.com

 

[keek]

Police said Sanchez entered the store before it closed on Saturday, Dec. 13, but did not purchase anything, according to WTVJ and WPLG.

Sanchez then allegedly went to a restricted employee-only area of the business and entered the freezer, where she stayed overnight. An employee found her the next morning.

Police do not believe foul play is involved with the woman’s death, according to WFTV and WPLG.

Mom of 2 Found Dead After She Mysteriously Walked into Dollar Tree Freezer

A mom has been found dead inside a freezer at a Dollar Tree in Florida, according to police.

people.com

She def had to have some sort of a psychiatric problem, her own or drug induced. So terribly sad for such a productive and beloved young woman. IMO

 

[PayrollNerd]

I wonder if as a doctor, she was overwhelmed with her career, her finances, student loan debt, relationships or scared about her health and just couldn’t take it anymore. Such a sad ending for someone with a brilliant mind.

 

[flowershop]

I am having a hard time believing that this was a suicide as the method strikes me as anything but fast or painless. What do we know about the door mechanism...is it such that it can only open from the outside?

 

[ex-stat]

Hypothermia is probably one of the least painful ways to go and I'm presuming that as a doctor she would know that. However I do agree that the setting indicates a crisis of some sort - how very sad. RIP.

 

[PatLaurel]

https://www.laprensani.com/2025/12/...po-anestesiologa-nicaraguense-congelador-eeuu

This is tragic! Sanchez was visiting her father who lives in the United States, and had planned to return to Nicaragua Monday, December 15.

I can’t understand how she could have ended up locked inside the freezer. Could she have mistaken a restricted area for the bathroom? And why didn’t she scream for help? Did she not have her cell phone with her? This is bizarre... MOO JMO

 

[lonetraveler]

I am having a hard time believing that this was a suicide as the method strikes me as anything but fast or painless. What do we know about the door mechanism...is it such that it can only open from the outside?

I'm also wondering if her clothes were in the freezer with her.

 

[ex-stat]

Can I ask - if it was a restricted employee-only area in Dollar Tree would that mean that it would be a walk-in freezer? Just asking because it says above that in the US that it's mandated that walk-in freezers have safety releases but that's not to say that they couldn't be broken/faulty I suppose. Sad either way, it sounds like either suicide or a tragic accident.

 

[Bigditch]

I'm sorry but I do not believe a person mistakes a freezer for say a bathroom. Was she trying to hide from someone? That depends on who was in charge of locking up the store that night. Jmo

 

[realanastasia]

I'm sorry but I do not believe a person mistakes a freezer for say a bathroom. Was she trying to hide from someone? That depends on who was in charge of locking up the store that night. Jmo

NOT trying to make this political AT ALL, but along these lines, might she have seen someone she feared was an ICE agent and unthinkingly fled to the first place she could hide, not realizing that it (maybe) didn’t have an internal mechanism for unlocking the freezer door?

 

[STLBlues]

https://www.laprensani.com/2025/12/...po-anestesiologa-nicaraguense-congelador-eeuu

This is tragic! Sanchez was visiting her father who lives in the United States, and had planned to return to Nicaragua Monday, December 15.

I can’t understand how she could have ended up locked inside the freezer. Could she have mistaken a restricted area for the bathroom? And why didn’t she scream for help? Did she not have her cell phone with her? This is bizarre... MOO JMO

Can I ask - if it was a restricted employee-only area in Dollar Tree would that mean that it would be a walk-in freezer? Just asking because it says above that in the US that it's mandated that walk-in freezers have safety releases but that's not to say that they couldn't be broken/faulty I suppose. Sad either way, it sounds like either suicide or a tragic accident.

In a previous job, I was a machinery and equipment appraiser. I appraised the assets of many businesses that had walk-in coolers and freezers. There is no way she could have mistaken a walk-in for a bathroom. First, the doors look very different from a normal man (regular) door. Source

I've been in some walk-ins where I had great cell service outside the cooler/freezer but absolutely NO service inside. So, there is the potential she had no service even if she had her cell phone.

Yes, all walk-ins are required to have safety releases. Though, as @ex-stat states, it could have been broken.