Inset: David Michael Gibson (Bexar County Jail). Background: The home where Bexar County deputies in Texas found his father”s body (KENS/YouTube).
The Texas man who stuffed his father’s body into a refrigerator and then closed it shut with a chain pleaded guilty and is headed to prison.
David Michael Gibson, 49, entered a guilty plea to tampering with evidence with the intent to impair a human corpse, according to court records. On Wednesday, a judge sentenced him to 10 years behind bars. Authorities doing a welfare check found the “badly decomposed” body of Gibson’s father, Daniel Gibson, in the fridge located in the garage. An autopsy could not determine the cause and manner of death.
The Gibson family lambasted the defendant at sentencing, according to a courtroom report from local ABC affiliate KSAT.
“To disrespect him by placing him in a freezer and not telling anybody — you have no family anymore, you are on your own,” said Matthew Gibson, the victim’s son and suspect’s brother.
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As Law&Crime previously reported, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said deputies responded on Aug. 8, 2024, to a home in the 7500 block of Rustic Trail and started talking to a man who identified himself as the person they were looking for.
“But the deputy got the sense it was not him,” Salazar said. “Later on in the day, he was able to get in touch with some family members who said, ‘That voice on that Ring is not our father.'”
The family helped deputies enter the home, where David Gibson was found. Deputies looked around and saw a refrigerator in the garage that “appeared suspicious in nature,” Salazar said. It appeared to be chained shut, according to Salazar. Deputies opened the fridge and found human remains, Salazar said.
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San Antonio CBS affiliate KENS spoke to family members who said they immediately saw a human head when they opened the fridge door and slammed it shut. The deputies had everyone leave the home to establish a crime scene.
The family told police they hadn’t heard from or seen the victim in months and there were some “indicators” that David Gibson had been living with the remains for quite some time, Salazar said. Gibson was allegedly cashing checks from his father’s Social Security and military pension. The victim also apparently hadn’t refilled his prescriptions for a while.
Gibson will have to serve at least five years of his sentence before he will be eligible for parole.
