After he was reported missing in 2009, Larry Ely Murillo-Moncada's body was found ten years later, tragically trapped behind a fridge at a local grocery store in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Murillo-Moncada, who was 25-years-old at the time of his disappearance, was reported missing by his parents a day after Thanksgiving in 2009.
According to former Council Bluffs Police Capt. Todd Weddum, Murillo-Moncada's parents shared that their son ran away from home and appeared to be acting irrationally, likely due to medication he had been taking at the time.
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Despite a rigorous manhunt to find Murillo-Moncada, including even turning to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the search was rendered futile and Murillo-Moncada remained missing.
That is, until one spontaneous day in January 2019.
While cleaning out a No Frills supermarket in the area — that had originally closed down in 2016 — workers found human remains wedged in a gap behind one of the store's fridges.
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Following DNA testing from his parents, the body was identified as Murillo-Moncada's.
Clothing found on the body also matched the description that was given at the time of his disappearance 10 years earlier.
Murillo-Moncada used to work at the store, and former employees shared that it wasn't unusual for workers to climb atop the fridge units to stock them.
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After investigators found no signs of foul play, they deduced that Murillo-Moncada likely climbed atop the fridge and slipped into the 18-inch gap between the unit and the wall where he unfortunately remained trapped.
The fridge itself was around 12-feet tall and its cooler compressors evidently made a lot of noise. Any attempts that Murillo-Moncada made to cry out for help were likely drowned out by the compressors.
His death was ultimately ruled as an accident.
An eerie simulation of what happened to Murillo-Moncada has now gone viral online. It details what position he got trapped in and how it was impossible to hear or see him due to the fridge's size and sound.
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Considering that Murillo-Moncada's body was trapped in the store for ten years, there were at least seven of those years where the market was still open to customers.
At the time of Murillo-Moncada's discovery in 2019, Sgt. Brandon Danielson, with Council Bluffs Police Department, said: "The mother had an idea that he has never left 'No Frills'.
"I don't know how she came up with that idea, but [his parents] were pretty upset."
Per KETV, he added: “You don’t hear about these types of cases, people found in walls. Especially in this area. so that would be the odd part of about. We have missing person cases all the time, but this is just unique.”
Yasmeen Hamadeh