Body parts found in freezer identified as 16-year-old girl missing since 2005

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. - The body parts found in the freezer of a newly purchased home in Colorado have been identified as Amanda Overstreet, 16-year-old daughter of the home’s previous owner who’s been missing since 2005.

According to the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office in Grand Junction, the body parts were discovered in January, when the new homeowner gave away an appliance that had been left behind. The person who came to pick it up found a human head and hands in the freezer.

The sheriff’s office released the name of the victim Friday. The victim, Amanda Leariel Overstreet, is the daughter of the home’s previous owner. Investigators believe she was 16 years old when she disappeared in April 2005.

There’s no record that Overstreet was ever reported missing, the sheriff’s office said.

A neighbor told KUSA in January that the people who stopped by to pick up the freezer asked if they could use her restroom. She asked them what was happening.

"I let them in and cautiously I was like, ‘What's going on?’ 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," she told the Denver news station. "A human head!"

The Mesa County Coroner’s Office told NBC News the manner of death is being investigated as a homicide. The cause of death has not been released, and the rest of her body hasn’t been found. Overstreet had lived in Grand Junction and Harris County, Texas.

Investigators said the new homeowner has no ties to the case. The investigation is ongoing.