When a grocery store worker mysteriously vanished in 2009 after leaving his parent's home barefoot during a blizzard while experiencing hallucinations, the missing persons case was already a strange one.
But Larry Ely Murillo-Moncada's disappearance took an even more bizarre turn a decade later. It wasn't until after the No Frills Supermarket where Larry had worked shut its doors for good that the 25-year-old's body was finally discovered .
Over the years, both staff and customers had complained about a foul odor emanating from the freezer section, but their concerns were always brushed aside. Some even claimed that the stench was so overpowering that it made them "sick" and forced them to leave, swearing never to return.
It was three years after the store had closed down that the source of the smell was finally identified as Larry's decomposing remains. The gruesome discovery, less than a mile away from Larry's home, was made by crews dismantling shelves.
Investigations revealed that he had fallen into an 18" gap in the wall near where former workers had been known to climb the 12ft freezers to stock goods. Investigators in Council Bluffs, Iowa, suggested that the noise from the coolers likely drowned out his cries for help and the cold temperatures preserved his body in a state of mummification.
No signs of foul play were found and his death was ruled to be accidental. Sgt Brandon Danielson commented: "You don't hear about these types of cases, [like] people found in walls, especially in this area. We have missing persons all the time, but this is just unique."
"This is the first time in my career that I've seen a body in this type of condition," he added. Larry was reported missing the day after Thanksgiving, having dashed out of his parents' home barefoot during a blizzard, plagued by hallucinations.
He abandoned his keys and vehicle. At the time, his mother told reporters that Larry, who was on antidepressants, seemed "confused and disorientated" and was "hearing voices that said 'eat sugar.'"
"He felt his heart was beating too fast and thought if he ate sugar, his heart wouldn't beat so hard," she explained. However, when appeals for the missing person surfaced online, one shopper remarked: "I shopped there all the time and it smelled horrible! I even asked the butcher one time if the back area was dirty with dried blood from cutting the meat and he said no, it was really clean. It smelled for a long time!"
Another chimed in: "We went there once and the smell was so strong back there by the coolers that it made me sick, I had to leave. never went back again." Someone else commented: "I always thought it smelled like something dead.
Sgt Danielson revealed that Larry's mother had suspicions he might have been at the store when he disappeared, even though he wasn't scheduled to work that day. "The mother, she kind of had an idea that he had never left the No Frills," he stated. "I don't know how she came up with that idea," he added.
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