81-year-old San Diego woman who had been missing for 9 years is found dead in freezer

SAN DIEGO (TCD) -- Some out-of-town visitors made a tragic discovery last month when an elderly woman's body was found inside a chest freezer in the city's Allied Gardens neighborhood.

On Friday, Dec. 22, at 11:45 a.m., San Diego Police Department officers were called to a home on the 4900 block of Zion Avenue for a death investigation. Police said some relatives who did not live in the area were at the residence and located a body in the freezer. The San Diego Police Department Homicide Unit was brought in to investigate due to the "unusual location of the body."

The medical examiner conducted an autopsy and identified the woman as 81-year-old Mary Margaret Haxby-Jones. Investigators said she lived at the Zion Avenue home "at some point prior to the discovery of her body."  According to San Diego Police, there is a possibility Haxby-Jones could have been either missing or dead for up to nine years.

Police said Haxby-Jones' cause of death remain undetermined, but there did not appear to be any signs of traumatic injury. However, the case is still being investigated as a "suspicious death."

MORE:

• Police Investigate Suspicious Death in Allied Gardens - San Diego Police Department
• Update on Suspicious Death in Allied Gardens; Body Identified - San Diego Police Department