Body parts found in a freezer earlier this year after a Colorado home was sold have been identified as those of the 16-year-old daughter of the home’s previous owner, authorities said Friday.
The death of Amanda Leariel Overstreet is being investigated as a homicide and an investigation is ongoing, the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office said.
The grim discovery was made in January, after the home near Grand Junction had been sold to a new owner, and after that owner offered a freezer that had been left behind for free, the sheriff’s office said.
Inside the freezer there was a head and forearms with hands attached. Deputies were called on Jan. 12 after the person who claimed the freezer made the discovery.
The last time Amanda had been seen or heard from was in April 2005, the sheriff’s office said.
“The circumstances surrounding her disappearance remain under investigation, as well as ongoing forensic testing of evidence,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement about the case. “There is no record that Amanda Overstreet was ever reported missing.”
The Mesa County coroner's office said Friday that the remains had been identified and that the manner of death was being investigated as homicide. The rest of the her body has not been found.
The coroner's office did not list a cause of death but said there is an active investigation and no further details would be released. DNA analysis helped to confirm the identification, the office said.
Amanda lived in the Grand Junction and Harris County, Texas, areas, the coroner’s office said.
The sheriff's office stressed again Friday that the home is under new ownership, and the current owner of the home is "completely unrelated to the previous case."
"The house was purchased, fully remodeled, and sold to the current owner," the sheriff's office said.
