Hundreds of thousands of children go missing in the US each year. Most of them are found, but tragically, many are never seen or heard from again. And recently, the remains of a teenager missing since 2005 were discovered in a recently sold Colorado home.
The especially eerie part of this case is that the victim was never reported missing in the first place. After her parents moved out of the house, they left a freezer with her body parts inside. Horrifyingly, the new owners and someone who purchased the deep freezer left behind made the gruesome discovery.
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In January, the human remains were discovered in a recently sold Colorado home.
Deputies responded to the disturbing call on January 12, 2024, according to a news release from the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office. After arriving at the house in Grand Junction, law enforcement discovered human remains in a freezer — the hand and head, specifically. A person who arrived at the residence to claim the appliance initially found the body parts after the new owner of the home listed the freezer for free.
The Mesa County Coroner’s Office recently identified the victim.
On October 11, the Mesa County Coroner’s Office announced the victim’s identity. DNA testing identified the remains as belonging to Amanda Leariel Overstreet, according to the news release. She was thought to have been roughly 16 at the time she disappeared.
Amanda Overstreet had not been seen or heard from since 2005.
No one had heard from or seen the teenager since April 2005, per the news release. She was the daughter of the home’s previous owner. However, there was no record of Overstreet having been reported missing. Forensic testing of evidence is ongoing.
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In January, a neighbor offered more insight into how the remains were discovered.
In January, a neighbor, Sam Troester, shared further details of the body’s discovery with KUSA.
“It turns out that the new owners of the house posted online that they were looking to sell a bunch of the garbage that was left behind, scrap metal and things that people could repurpose,” she told the outlet. “And there was a deep freezer that was posted up for grabs.”
The person who claimed the free freezer came up to her house.
“I let them in and cautiously I was like, ‘What’s going on?'” Troester recalled. “And they continued to tell me that they opened the freezer to empty it so they could transport it and they said a head fell out. A human head!”
The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office is still investigating the case.
The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office is working with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation on this case, KJCT reported. “I mean, she was a child,” Mesa County Sheriff’s Office communications officer Wendy Like told the outlet. “She was 16 years old. She’s still a child.”
