There is something strange about this story. Perhaps details are missing. Any thoughts how this went undiscovered for so long? Reminds me of Edgar Allen Poe type of story. Here it is:

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — Workers removing shelves and coolers from a former No Frills Supermarket in Council Bluffs, Iowa, in January discovered a body behind one of them.


Larry Murillo-Moncada’s parents told police he’d been acting irrationally, possibly because of medication. (Iowa Dept. of Public Safety)

The remains were recently identified as those of Larry Ely Murillo-Moncada, a former employee who had been reported missing Nov. 28, 2009.

Investigators used his parents’ DNA to confirm the identity, and the clothes matched the description of his attire at the time he was reported missing, according to Council Bluffs Police Capt. Todd Weddum.

Murillo-Moncada’s parents reported their son missing after he became upset and ran out of their home. They told police at the time that he was acting irrationally, possibly because of medication he was taking, Weddum said.

Officers contacted family members, other law enforcement agencies, nearby detention centers and even the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency — he had been deported to Honduras before making his way back to the United States — but received no information regarding his possible whereabouts.

Investigators now believe that Murillo-Moncada went to the supermarket and climbed on top of the coolers. The space was used as storage for merchandise, Weddum said, and employees would sometimes go there to hide when they wanted to take an unofficial break.

He is thought to have fallen into the 18-inch gap between the back of the cooler and a wall, where he became trapped. Noise from the coolers’ compressors may have concealed any attempts to call for help, according to Weddum.

An autopsy found no signs of trauma, and the case has been deemed an accidental death.

LINK; https://wgntv.com/2019/07/22/r...issing-for-10-years/

So was the smell of a rotting corpse the normal smell in that little supermarket?

Man, what a terrible way to go.

I'm curious how cold the back of the coolers were. Perhaps that prevented or slowed things until the store closed and didn't become noticeable until it was vacant.

Obviously there are more details.

quote:

Originally posted by Tuckerrnr1:
So was the smell of a rotting corpse the normal smell in that little supermarket?

Employees were probably used to the smell of expired meat back then.

- The guy was on meds, went crazy, wandered around and fell in-between the wall of the store and the coolers, wedging himself into place.
- Noise from the coolers would've drowned out the cries for help
- Store closes
- 10-years later, work is being done to the property, the coolers are removed and body of said Murillo-Moncada is discovered.

quote:

Originally posted by thumperfbc:
Man, what a terrible way to go.

No kidding. As described, that sounds absolutely awful. I'd rather be thrown into a wood chipper than slowly die the way this guy apparently did.

Wouldn't the back of the coolers be warmer?

We once had a body found behind between two 1920s building in downtown Wilson NC. Had been there long enough to decompose enough to no longer be identifiable. The officers in my district recognized him due to clothing. He had been there for about six months. He was found by kids skipping school who tried to cut between the buildings.

It was a murder, but only found when the autopsy was conducted. He cross dressed and we assume someone didn’t know he was a him and stabbed him after discovering.

Once it made the paper , people commented about the smell they remarked upon several months prior, but never spoke up.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
Once it made the paper , people commented about the smell they remarked upon several months prior, but never spoke up.

I think that people aren't familiar with or, it doesn't dawn on them that, it makes more sense to attribute that awful smell to the garbage, a backed-up sewer or, the rancid grease trap from the nearby restaurant.

A few more details:

https://www.nonpareilonline.co...a5-ce0f557afd78.html

Body found in vacant No Frills that of man missing since 2009

By Courtney Brummer-Clark
cbclark@nonpareilonline.com
Jul 23, 2019 Updated 9 hrs ago

Council Bluffs police have released the identity of the body found in a vacant Council Bluffs grocery store in January.

Last week, the Council Bluffs Police Department received information from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Criminalistics Laboratory regarding the identity of the body found in the vacant No Frills Supermarket Store, 1817 W. Broadway, on Jan. 24.

The identity of the deceased is Larry Ely Murillo-Moncada of Council Bluffs, police announced in a release Monday morning. The State Lab was able to make a positive identification by analyzing DNA collected from Murillo’s biological parents.

On Nov. 28, 2009, Murillo-Moncada’s parents reported him to be missing after he became upset and ran out of their home; he was 25 years old at the time of that report. Murillo was employed at No Frills Supermarket at the time of his disappearance.

The store closed in 2016.

The autopsy indicated no signs of trauma to Murillo-Moncada, police said.

Shortly after his disappearance in 2009, Murillo-Moncada’s mother, Ana Moncada, told The Daily Nonpareil he went to work on Thanksgiving night; and, when he returned home on the morning of Nov. 27, he seemed disoriented.

She took him to see a doctor, who prescribed an anti-depressant. He continued to feel disoriented and began to hear voices, she said.

“He was hearing voices that said ‘eat sugar,’” said Maria Stockton, a friend who served as translator for his mother, said in 2009. “He felt his heart was beating too hard and thought if he ate sugar, his heart would not beat so hard.”

In speaking to former employees of No Frills, it was common for workers to be on top of the coolers, as the space was utilized for storage of goods, police said. Investigators believe that Murillo-Moncada went to the store after leaving his home and climbed on top of the coolers, where he fell into an approximate 18-inch gap between the back of the cooler and a wall, getting trapped.

At the time of his disappearance, he was reportedly last seen wearing a Navy blue hooded sweatshirt and light blue sweat pants. He was described as 5-feet, 5-inches tall and weighed 140 pounds.

The case is being closed and classified as an accidental death.

When I was about ten years old (1950) we lived across the street from some old "stripper" oil wells. There was a tank battery which consisted of a separator, water storage and oil storage tanks. My next door neighbor was the pumper that operated the wells, and while eating supper and looking out the window I saw him walking up the road and he looked quite troubled. Went out and asked him what was going on? He said there was a body in his oil storage tank. He would go daily and measure the level of the oil with a stick, and he saw the body when he looked into the tank. A guy decided to commit suicide and did it by crawling into the oil tank?

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
Wouldn't the back of the coolers be warmer?

No ,the heat exchange is located outside,was a thing a dozen years back when R-12 got banned that thieves would go behind business and steal from the compressor unites.

Reminded me of this story. Apparently this guy was fleeing from cops and tried to hide in a store pillar, fell into the column and died there. A slow horrible death for sure...

https://www.sacbee.com/news/st...rticle216547480.html

A foul odor emanating from a stone pillar outside a WinCo Foods store in Lancaster, California, led to a gruesome discovery Saturday afternoon, KNBC reported.

When a plumber summoned by the store manager to investigate a possible sewer leak began removing stones from the hollow column, he found a tennis shoe and a leg entombed inside, reported KCAL.

The body, discovered at 2:40 p.m. Saturday, may be that of a man sought on suspicion of auto theft who vanished Monday after fleeing from deputies onto the store’s roof, Lt. John Corina of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department told KTLA.


Deputies assumed the man had gotten away, but the interior of the hollow stone pillars in front of the store can be reached from the roof, Corina told the station.


“He may have gotten inside there and somehow gotten down the column, trying to hide from the deputies and then couldn’t get out,” Corina told KABC.

“It’s been over 100 degrees up here every day,” Corina told the station. “I can’t imagine being inside that column and just baking. It’s a strange development, and if he died that way, it’s a horrible way to die.”

Neighborhood residents were horrified by the discovery, KTLA reported.

“It’s terrible,” Sunshine York-Hanger told the station. “I was just thinking, you know, I wonder if he was trying to get anybody’s attention and nobody would know. Nobody would know where it’s coming from, the voice, you know, if that’s the case because I’m hoping it was instant if that was what happened.”

Los Angeles coroner’s officials removed the body from the pillar. An investigation into the man’s identity continues, KCAL reported.

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:

quote:

Originally posted by Tuckerrnr1:
So was the smell of a rotting corpse the normal smell in that little supermarket?

Employees were probably used to the smell of expired meat back then.

Oh my. Yikes.

We had a small cat die in between the basement ceiling and the main floor of our house. Stank horribly throughout the house for weeks and in some areas of the house for months.

How do you not know there is a corpse in your store ?

Remember this one? The video of her in the elevator shortly before she got into that water tank is bone chilling.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Elisa_Lam

^^I do remember. Real strange, and I believe still unsolved.

worked in and ran grocery stores for years,

there are locations that have large gaps behind the cases, big enough to fall into and get stuck


the cases are insulated, so it will be cool behind one, and if the AC/HVAC is wonky, that case may sweat a bit on the back, but they are not sound proof,


must have been a poorly run store if the meat case smelled worse than a decaying body,,

quote:

Originally posted by corsair:

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
Once it made the paper , people commented about the smell they remarked upon several months prior, but never spoke up.

I think that people aren't familiar with or, it doesn't dawn on them that, it makes more sense to attribute that awful smell to the garbage, a backed-up sewer or, the rancid grease trap from the nearby restaurant.

Trust me on 2 things:
It’s a smell you NEVER want to smell.
Once you smell it, you’ll NEVER forget it.