A Missing Man Vanished for 10 Years. The Answer Was Just Behind a Wall
A missing man vanished on a snowy November day and never returned. His parents searched in vain, the police found no clues. It wasn’t until ten years later, during the dismantling of some old freezer units, that a chilling discovery was made: Larry Ely Murillo-Moncada had been dead the entire time… hidden right at the place where he used to work.
On the evening of November 28, 2009, just after 6 PM, 25-year-old Larry Ely Murillo-Moncada ran away from his parents’ home in Council Bluffs, Iowa, in the middle of a snowstorm. He was barefoot, wearing only a navy blue hoodie and light blue pants. He took neither his car nor his keys. His parents later said he had been experiencing hallucinations and was on antidepressants, which he may have stopped taking or which were no longer working. That night, he vanished without a trace.
In the following days and weeks, the police launched a search for the missing man. They followed multiple leads and interviewed contacts. There was even speculation that he might have returned to Honduras, the country his family came from. But no clues were ever found.
At the time he disappeared, Larry was working at a nearby No Frills supermarket, located less than a mile from his home. It was an ordinary grocery store with freezer aisles and shelves like any other. Yet no one suspected it would become his final resting place. He wasn’t scheduled to work on the day he went missing. According to his mother, he had returned from a Thanksgiving shift the day before acting confused and disoriented. His parents feared he had stopped taking his prescribed medication, which could explain his behavior. The next morning, they and some friends searched for him, but without success.
Ten Years of Silence
A few years later, the store shut down. The building stood vacant, like a quiet tomb. In 2019, demolition work began. While dismantling old industrial freezers, workers found human remains in a narrow space – a gap barely 18 inches wide between the back of the unit and the wall.
Due to the advanced state of decomposition, it took six months and DNA testing to confirm the identity: it was Larry. Police investigators concluded that he had climbed on top of the freezer units. Something employees reportedly did often, whether to store items or take unofficial breaks. He most likely fell into the narrow gap and became trapped at the bottom of a shaft more than 12 feet deep.
For ten years, his body lay there unnoticed, while customers walked past the freezers, completely unaware that a missing man was right behind the wall. The mystery only deepens. How is it possible that no one smelled anything? Why did no employee ever hear him cry for help?
Still curious about the strange and unexplained? Check out our article and decide for yourself whether there’s more to this world than we think.
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