The severed head and hands of a 16-year-old Colorado girl found in a freezer have now been identified after a months-long investigation, DailyMail.com can reveal.
On January 12 this year, a family were clearing out the house in Grand Junction, Colorado that had previously belonged to the girl’s family when they said they found the gruesome remains in a chest freezer left by the previous owners.
Ten months later, Mesa County Coroner announced they have finally identified the body parts as belonging to Amanda Overstreet, who ‘was last known to be alive in April 2005.’
Mesa County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Wendy Likes told DailyMail.com that Amanda was the biological daughter of the widowed homeowner Leanne, 55 – and Leanne’s late husband Bradley was Amanda’s stepfather.
Likes declined to comment whether the biological father had been identified or interviewed by police.
The spokeswoman said Amanda was 16 when she was last seen in 2005.
Likes said no arrests have been made in the murder probe, and that Leanne is still a resident of Grand Junction, Colorado.
‘The remainder of her body has not been recovered at this time,’ the coroner’s office said. ‘The manner of death is being investigated as homicide. The case remains an active investigation, and no further details will be released at this time.’
Bradley died age 61 on July 7, 2021, from a cardiac arrest after getting a bad case of Covid-19, according to local reports.
The next day, Leanne posted a fundraiser for his funeral and hospital bills on Facebook. The couple had two children of their own, Elsie Belle and Anthony Imer.
‘Bradley D. Imer came down with Covid last month and was admitted to the ICU on June 27th. He passed away July 7th. Our family is trying to raise money to pay for his burial and medical expenses,’ she wrote.
‘We had a flood in our home a couple of months ago and have been living in a hotel since May 3rd, while trying to work with our homeowner’s insurance and contractors to complete the repairs.
‘Our daughter is started her senior year in a couple of weeks and her father’s passing has just devastated her, they were best friends.
‘Bradley had many friends & family who he touched during his life. Bradley was loved and respected by many. He lived his life to the fullest with no regrets. Bradley would give the shirt of his back and no one left our house without a meal and good conversation.
‘Bradley was (still is) the love of my life, my best friend, the greatest father, a wonderful husband, and the best man I will ever know. I just don’t know what we are going to without him. Bradley was our rock and the heart and soul of our family. No man will ever live up to his memory because he was just a great man, loved by all who knew him.’
She added that she and her son Anthony were ‘going to stay in the motorhome in the front yard until the repairs [to their flooded house] are made.’
Neighbors said they saw a young male living with Leanne and described them as ‘hoarders’.
One local, posting anonymously on a blog, wrote: ‘Does anyone know anything about a daughter that lived at that house? We live around the corner and used to see her around the neighborhood but haven’t seen her in years.’
Sam Troester, who lives across the street, said she noticed something strange when people in hazmat suits turned up at the home.
Troester said she learned what had happened when the people intending to buy the freezer came to her door and asked if they could use her restroom.
‘I let them in and cautiously I was like, ‘What’s going on?” she told 9 News.
‘And they continued to tell me that they opened the freezer to empty it so they could transport it and they said a head fell out. A human head!’
Sheriffs later confirmed that human hands were also found in the freezer.
‘A thorough and detailed investigation is the top priority,’ the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office wrote in a news release at the time.
‘Our hope is to positively identify the victim while remaining respectful of the victim and the victim’s family.’
They added: ‘These types of tests take a significant amount of time.’