The remains of a teenager who may have been last seen alive in Texas nearly 20 years ago were found in a Colorado home.
The Mesa County Sheriff's Office announced that Amanda Leariel Overstreet was found to be the girl whose head and hands were found inside a freezer in January . Overstreet is believed to have been last seen alive in the Houston area in April 2005.
“DNA analysis helped confirm both the head and the hands to be Amanda Overstreet, a 16-year-old female resident of both Grand Junction and Harris County, Texas areas,” said the Mesa County Coroner’s Office in a statement shared on Friday.
The Coroner's office also reported the rest of Overstreet's remains had yet to be found. Her death is being investigated as a homicide, initiating an investigation 20 years after she is believed to have died.
Amanda Overstreet was never reported missing, police say
Despite not being seen or heard from in nearly two decades, there is no record of Overstreet being reported missing. She was the biological daughter of the home's previous owner, according to the Sheriff's office.
The body parts were found when the owners of the home, which had been recently sold when the body parts were found, attempted to give away the freezer. The Sheriff's Office noted in a Facebook post that the current owners were "completely unrelated" to the case.
"The house was purchased, fully remodeled, and sold to the current owner," the office said.
On Monday, police told Houston Public Media no arrests have been made relating to the case. Authorities also have not publicly identified any possible suspects.
Overstreet grew up with family in the Houston area before moving to the Colorado home, records indicate. The home is located in Grand Junction, approximately 240 miles west of Denver in the state's Western Slope region.
Who are Amanda Overstreet's parents? Where are they now?
Overstreet's biological mother was the previous owner of the Colorado home in which the remains were found. The Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Wendy Likes said Leanne, now 55, lived in the home with her late husband, Bradley, who was Overstreet's stepfather. According to Daily Mail, Bradley Imer was 61 when he died of cardiac arrest following a case of COVID-19 in 2021.
Leanne is still a resident of Grand Junction. She and Bradley share two adult children, Elsie Belle and Anthony Imer.
Police have not identified Overstreet's biological father or whether he is included in the investigation.
— USA TODAY reporter James Powell contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Head, hands found in Colorado freezer identified as girl last seen in Texas in 2005
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