Republished November 25, 2019 - 4:21 PM
Original Publication Date November 25, 2019 - 3:16 PM
SALT LAKE CITY - The body of a man found in a dead Utah woman’s freezer had been there for at least one year and maybe as long as a decade, police said Monday.
Officers went Friday to an apartment complex in a city west of Salt Lake City to check on a 75-year-old woman who hadn’t been seen in two weeks, said Tooele Police Sgt. Jeremy Hansen.
They found the deceased woman on a bed and called detectives to come assess the scene. While looking through the apartment, the detectives discovered an unidentified man inside a chest freezer, Hansen said.
They couldn’t tell from looking at the fully intact body how he died, but suspect foul play, he said.
Detectives have suspicions about who the man is and his relationship to the woman but are waiting to say publicly until the medical examiner completes the autopsy. The medical examiner will determine the identity and cause of death.
Hansen said detectives estimate the man’s body had been there at least one year and as long as 11 years based on when residents in the apartment complex say they last saw him.
The woman has been identified as Jeanne Souron-Mathers. She had lived in the apartment since 2007. Her death is not considered suspicious.
Tooele is a city of about 35,000 people about 25 miles (40 kilometres) west of Salt Lake City.
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This story has been corrected to show the man’s body was discovered Friday, not Monday.
News from © The Associated Press, 2019