The San Diego Police Department (SDPD) has announced that a woman’s body was found stuffed in a freezer last month, and she may have been missing or dead for up to nine years.

The body of Mary Margaret Haxby-Jones, who police say would have been 81 at the time of her discovery, was found by out-of-town family members who were visiting a house on the 4900 block of Zion Avenue, situated about 10 miles northeast of Downtown San Diego, California.

The family members came across the startling discovery in a chest freezer and notified police on Dec. 22 at around 11:45 a.m., the SDPD said in a statement Thursday. Based on the unusual location of the senior’s body, the San Diego Police Homicide Unit was called to investigate. 

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The body of Mary Margaret Haxby-Jones was found by out-of-town family members who were visiting a house on Zion Avenue. (iStock)

Police said Haxby-Jones, described as a white female, had lived at the residence.

The cause of death has not been determined and remains under investigation by the Medical Examiner’s Office, the SDPD said. 

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No obvious traumatic injury to the body was noted, and the case remains under investigation as a suspicious death, police said.     

Detectives believe it is possible that Haxby-Jones may have been missing or dead for up to nine years, based on the investigation to that point. Detectives are interested in speaking with anyone who may have known her or have relevant information about her.

It is unclear who currently lives at the residence on Zion Avenue where the body was discovered.

A woman’s body was found stuffed in a freezer in a home in San Diego last month, and she may have been missing or dead for nearly a decade, the San Diego Police Department announced Thursday. (Google Maps)

Pete Carrillo, a former homicide detective, told Fox 5 San Diego that investigators would likely be examining Haxby-Jones’ financial records.

“It’s a misappropriation of a dead body, you have a duty to call the authorities if someone has passed so they can be processed in a normal fashion,” Carrillo said.

“All that process has been avoided for a particular reason and one could only think that it was to perhaps benefit financially off of not reporting her death.”

A map pinpoints the 4900 block of Zion Avenue, situated about 10 miles northeast of Downtown San Diego, California, where the woman’s body was discovered. (Google Maps)