COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — Earlier this year, workers removing shelves and coolers from a closed supermarket in Council Bluffs discovered a body.
The remains were recently identified as those of 25-year-old Larry Ely Murillo-Moncada, a former employee who had been reported missing on Nov. 28, 2009.
The decade-long cold case took a bizarre twist at the former No Frills Supermarket when his body was found.
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Council Bluffs police believe Murillo-Moncada climbed a cooler and somehow fell behind it, leaving him trapped. Police said the gap was about 18 inches between the cooler and the wall.
"I was informed that sometimes employees would randomly go up at different times and be up on the unit and we believe that he may have accidentally fell behind the unit," Sgt. Brandon Danielson told KETV.
Employees said Murillo-Moncada wasn't scheduled to work that day, so no one knew he was there.
Hours before he vanished, his parents told police he was upset and ran out of their home.
"The mother had an idea that he had never left the No Frills. I don't know how she came up with that idea, but they were pretty upset," said Danielson.
Investigators believe his death was an accident. They call this one of the oddest cases they've worked on.
"You don't hear about these type of cases, people found in walls, especially in this area. So that would be the odd part of about. We have missing person cases all the time, but this is just unique," said Danielson.
State authorities were able to identify Murillo-Moncada using DNA from his parents.
Iowa medical examiners have ordered an autopsy.
CNN/KETV