Body of a Florida woman missing for five years is found inside a freezer dumped at scrap metal merchant's from a man's apartment when he died in February
- The grisly find was made on March 15 by the owner of a scrap metal business
- Heather Lacey lived on the streets and had been missing since November 2013
- The freezer belonged to Jonathan Escarzada, who was found dead in February
- Escarzada's landlord had the freezer removed for scrap without finding the body
The body of a Florida woman who went missing six years ago has been found in a freezer removed from a dead man's apartment.
The grisly discovery was made at a scrap metal warehouse in Margate on March 15 by the business's owner Lilian Argueta.
When she opened the old freezer that had been brought there for scrap she was horrified to find the corpse of Heather Lacey, a mother of two who was 29 at the time of her disappearance.
The body of mother-of-two Heather Lacey was discovered on March 15 inside a freezer that had been brought for scrap, almost six years after she was reported missing in December 2013
Share this article
'I thought it was a witch, or a mannequin,' she told the Sun-Sentinel newspaper.
'I thought, "It can't be a person." But there was a bad odor.'
The Sun-Sentinel quoted witnesses who said Ms Lacey’s arms were raised as if her hands were pushing against the freezer door, and her legs were pushed back against her torso.
The horrifying discovery left Ms Argueta in shock and tears.
'I started to scream,' she said. 'I had never seen such a thing.'
Margate business owner Lilian Argueta was horrified to find Heather Lacey's remains when she opened a freezer that had been brought into her warehouse for scrap
The body was identified by the Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Ms Lacey had not been heard from since Thanksgiving 2013 and was last seen in Deerfield Beach.
Ms Lacey's father Randell Lacey reported his daughter missing in December 2013, telling authorities that she lived on the streets and was bipolar, the Sun-Sentinel reported.
Family members said that she had a history of abuse that began with painkillers following a Caesarian birth and escalated to using cocaine and other narcotics.
The Sun-Sentinel reported that Ms Lacey had been arrested several times for drug possession and prostitution, and had served a one-year sentence for forging a cheque and identity theft.
Heather Lacey, who suffered from bipolar disorder, lived on the streets and had a history of drug abuse and prostitution, was 29 when she disappeared some time after Thanksgiving 2013
The freezer had been removed from the apartment of Jonathan Escarzaga, who was found dead on February 17 this year at his address in the Miami suburb of Hollywood.
The landlord had decided to buy new appliances and had the old freezer, which was reportedly not locked, removed and sent for scrap.
Police said they did not know if Mr Escarzaga knew Ms Lacey, or if he had played any part in her death.
The scrap metal warehouse in Margate, 40 miles north of Miami, Florida, where Heather Lacey's body was discovered in the freezer
