Human remains were discovered inside a chest freezer at a Lemon Creek residence on Sunday.
That’s according to an information release from the Juneau Police Department on Tuesday. Police received a report from a person cleaning out the home of a dead family member when they discovered the remains in a chest freezer Sunday evening. The freezer was in a locked shed on the property.
Juneau Deputy Police Chief Krag Campbell told KTOO police are trying to figure out what happened. He said it’s a suspicious death and investigators are not ruling out homicide.
“I can only speak for Juneau, but [this is] very unusual, not something I’ve seen or heard of before,” he said.
Campbell said, based on the deceased body’s appearance, police investigators believe the frozen remains are of an adult male related to the person who previously lived there. Police sent the body to the State Medical Examiner’s Office and are awaiting an autopsy report to confirm the person’s identity and cause of death.
He said police have a preliminary identification and he doesn’t think the person had ever been reported missing to the Juneau Police Department.
Campbell said it is too early in the investigation to release the name of any of the individuals who might be involved, or further details regarding the remains.
“I think that’s the biggest kind of unknown is ‘When did they get put in the freezer?’” he said. “That’s going to help pinpoint our investigation and do that as well as collecting evidence to see who might have done this.”
Campbell said the department plans to provide updates of the investigation to the public as more information becomes available.
