Supermarket employee found trapped behind freezer 10 years after disappearance

Police have closed the cold case investigation

Larry Ely Murillo-Moncada, 25, was working at the No Frills Supermarket in Council Bluffs, Iowa when he went missing in November 2009.

His parents reported the man missing after he ran out of the family home in a snowstorm after an argument.

He was not heard from again and Police had no leads on the missing persons enquiry.

However, back in 2019, a decomposing body was discovered in the supermarket that closed down three years ago.

Contractors had gone into the store to remove the fittings and tear apart the freezer unit.

It was in an 18-inch gap between the freezer and wall that they discovered the body.

Council Bluffs Police Sgt. Brandon Danielson told the Des Moines Register that the 25-year-old instantly came to mind when he heard that a body had been found.

The remains were sent off for DNA testing and compared to DNA taken from Murillo-Moncada’s parents.

An autopsy showed no signs of trauma and the supermarket employee’s death has been ruled an accident.

Authorities believe Murillo-Moncada climbed on top of the freezer, which fellow employees said was not uncommon due to storage facilities up there. It is thought he fell between the gap and became trapped, any cries for help would have been drowned out by the sound of the freezer.

Customers of the shop have since taken to social media claiming they could always smell something terrible when they were inside the store.

One customer said: “I shopped there all the time and it smelled horrible!”

Another wrote: “We went there once and the smell was so strong back there by the coolers that it made me sick, I had to leave.”

Police have now closed the cold case investigation.