People at a recently sold Colorado house made a gruesome discovery when they opened a discarded freezer left behind by the previous residents.
After the new owner attempted to offload the appliance for free on Jan. 12, a person who stopped by the house to claim it found a head and hands inside, the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office said on Friday.
Nine months later, authorities say they’ve identified the remains as those of a teenage girl whose family previously lived at the Grand Junction house — and a criminal investigation is ongoing.
DNA testing confirmed the remains belonged to Amanda Leariel Overstreet, who was approximately 16 years old when she was last seen in April 2005, the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office said. But there is no record that the girl was ever reported missing, authorities added. She was the biological daughter of the previous owner of the house.
Wendy Likes, the public information officer for the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office, told HuffPost that the office did not perform the forensic testing. It is unclear whether the girl’s identity was ascertained using genetic genealogy.
An autopsy performed on Jan. 17 confirmed the remains were human, the sheriff’s office said at the time, and her death is being investigated as a homicide.
Forensic testing of evidence is ongoing, and the circumstances surrounding Overstreet’s disappearance remain under investigation, Likes said, adding that authorities do not plan to provide additional details at this time.
“It was very important to us to ensure she was positively identified, that we took however much time was required to do so, and that her family members were notified of her identification before it was released to the public,” Likes told HuffPost. “We want to do right by her and make sure her death is thoroughly investigated, and that is going to take more time.”
