Page 12 - IAV Digital Magazine #478

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Grocery Store Employee Missing For 10 years Found Behind Store's Cooler
By Allen Kim, CNN
(CNN)Workers removing shelves and
coolers from a former No Frills Supermarket in Council Bluffs, Iowa, in January discovered a
body behind one of them.
The remains were recently identified as those of Larry
Ely Murillo- Moncada, a for- mer employee who had been reported missing November 28, 2009.
Investigators used his par- ents' DNA to confirm the iden- tity, and the clothes matched the description of his attire at the time he was reported miss- ing, according to Council Bluffs Police Capt. Todd Weddum.
Murillo- Moncada's par- ents reported their son miss- ing after he became upset and ran out of their home. They told police at the time that he was acting irrational- ly, possibly because of med-
ication he was taking, Weddum said.
Officers contact- ed family mem- bers, other law enforcement agencies, near- by detention centers and even the US 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 where- abouts. 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 some- times 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 cool- er and a wall, where he became trapped. Noise from the coolers' com- pressors 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
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