UNSOLVED NY - Man goes to clear out dead mom’s home, finds body in freezer, Manhattan, 1 May 2020

[madfrank]

Keeping it in the family is better than hosting a frozen stranger.

 

[madfrank]

The suspense is killing me if not yet refrigerating me. How will this turn out?

 

[Marg from Oz]

Surely the son would have gone to his father and grandmother's funerals.

 

[Valiant]

If the body is indeed a relative, it would not be the first case where someone concealed a death to keep receiving retirement benefits belonging to the deceased.

 

[meanmaryjean]

Surely the son would have gone to his father and grandmother's funerals.

Maybe not. My oldest was away at nursing school when her beloved grandmother died and we could not afford a plane ticket for her to come home.

 

[madfrank]

If the body is indeed a relative, it would not be the first case where someone concealed a death to keep receiving retirement benefits belonging to the deceased.

B-b-but Asmir said she seemed like a a lovely lady.

Speaking of building super Asmir Basim, I missed these specifics,
in the Daily News:

“(The son) opened the freezer and started screaming,” Basim said.
"He says the body appeared to be a woman, very decayed.”​

 

[Manwel]

When I first heard this news I thought this sounded like a movie directed by Danny DeVito. The Throw Momma From the Train vibes are strong.

 

[madfrank]

That this occurred in Manhattan makes all the difference -- though I'm stunned that, since it did, there's been so little news.

 

[Manwel]

That this occurred in Manhattan makes all the difference -- though I'm stunned that, since it did, there's been so little news.

Zany mom-com murder mystery doesn't hit well when coronavirus is more deadly.

 

[carbuff]

What I wanna know is how did the other tenants not smell it??

There probably wasn't much smell. Chest-type freezers are usually very airtight, which is why people sometimes suffocate in them by accident. Not much smell would be likely escape even if it wasn't plugged in and working. If it was, the frozen body probably wouldn't have smelled at all.

 

[madfrank]

Zany mom-com murder mystery doesn't hit well when coronavirus is more deadly.

Good point. But the tabs would be on it as their traditional way to present the world in all its "gory," and the Post particularly, to break the Covid narrative, being a pro-Trump rag. (However, this is a story tailor-made for the Daily News. Have been a reader for years and this is particularly slotted for them).

 

[Manwel]

Good point. But the tabs would be on it as their traditional way to present the world in all its "gory," and the Post particularly, to break the Covid narrative, being a pro-Trump rag. (However, this is a story tailor-made for the Daily News. Have been a reader for years and this is particularly slotted for them).

I definitely think it was the Daily News where I first read about it! Ha.

 

[madfrank]

Two weeks and no frozen body ID, nor anything further on the circumstances involved in a body winding up in an elderly lady's freezer? Completely no news?

Hmmm.....one wonders. One does wonder.

 

[meanmaryjean]

Two weeks and no frozen body ID, nor anything further on the circumstances involved in a body winding up in an elderly lady's freezer? Completely no news?

Hmmm.....one wonders. One does wonder.

I'm thinking they need to do DNA to confirm relationship to deceased perhaps. And covid has made exhumations a low priority.

 

[Manwel]

Two weeks and no frozen body ID, nor anything further on the circumstances involved in a body winding up in an elderly lady's freezer? Completely no news?

Hmmm.....one wonders. One does wonder.

I'm gonna give the labs the benefit of the doubt that they are busy testing people's nasal passages more than literally cold cases.

That being said, did we get confirmation that the freezer had been ON the whole time? Or was it shut, taped, and off? Because I would think someone in the freezer with it on would not be "impossible to identify" as was reported. I remember reading they couldn't tell at first what the assigned sex was. If it was off, then I can imagine how that would be unidentifiable remains.

I'm going to settle on the belief that it's the poor guy's grandma and Mumsy was collecting her mother's social security payments.

 

[carbuff]

I'm gonna give the labs the benefit of the doubt that they are busy testing people's nasal passages more than literally cold cases.

That being said, did we get confirmation that the freezer had been ON the whole time? Or was it shut, taped, and off? Because I would think someone in the freezer with it on would not be "impossible to identify" as was reported. I remember reading they couldn't tell at first what the assigned sex was. If it was off, then I can imagine how that would be unidentifiable remains.

I'm going to settle on the belief that it's the poor guy's grandma and Mumsy was collecting her mother's social security payments.

That certainly seems like the most likely explanation.

 

[Manwel]

That certainly seems like the most likely explanation.

I think that's why I'm content to imagine this as a dark comedy more than a thriller. Like, picture this older woman whose mother passes. She goes to pick up the phone, in tears, but knows that her mother's social security helps pay the bills. She puts the phone back down and orders a freezer from Sears.

Leaving it for her son to deal with later though, now that's really cold.

However, if we come to find out that this is some missing person, then things get really interesting. And in that regard, madfrank, I understand your eagerness for updates.

 

[madfrank]

Still baffled by the "no news" approach taken on this case. Cops were called at 9:30 a.m. Thursday 30 April; Daily News had a story up by 8:58 p.m. the same day, and now....20 days later, we still don't know much more than we did that day, and the next couple. I think DNA venues were classified essential in NYC, though I know it does take some time to match the DNA etc., especially if there's a real mystery. Yes, understood. But for the three dailies plus the many, many other outlets, national and international, to publish absolutely nothing, no reporting, no further facts gathered, no speculation? Yes, I know, Covid, etc., etc. But.

But -- odd. This was a human body in a freezer in Manhattan, for goodness' sakes.

 

[Manwel]

T

Still baffled by the "no news" approach taken on this case. Cops were called at 9:30 a.m. Thursday 30 April; Daily News had a story up by 8:58 p.m. the same day, and now....20 days later, we still don't know much more than we did that day, and the next couple. I think DNA venues were classified essential in NYC, though I know it does take some time to match the DNA etc., especially if there's a real mystery. Yes, understood. But for the three dailies plus the many, many other outlets, national and international, to publish absolutely nothing, no reporting, no further facts gathered, no speculation? Yes, I know, Covid, etc., etc. But.

But -- odd. This was a human body in a freezer in Manhattan, for goodness' sakes.

I mean, Chicago/Oak Park had a pair of high-profile attorneys end up murdered in their upscale home mid-April and the cops are zipped shut on any news. The most anyone heard since April 15 was "they are asking for area residents to send surveillance footage." That's it. If police have a larger story, it might remain locked up a while longer. (Or it's literally so boring to area cops that nobody is taking it beyond OCME retrieval.)

 

[madfrank]

I mean, Chicago/Oak Park had a pair of high-profile attorneys end up murdered in their upscale home mid-April and the cops are zipped shut on any news. The most anyone heard since April 15 was "they are asking for area residents to send surveillance footage." That's it. If police have a larger story, it might remain locked up a while longer. (Or it's literally so boring to area cops that nobody is taking it beyond OCME retrieval.)

Oak Park's not Manhattan and there's a reason to go silent in high profile double homicides. This is a human interest story and the freezer owner has left the building.