Few stories are as strangely tragic as the case of Larry Ely Murillo-Moncada, the man who was found trapped behind a set of store shelves nearly 10 years after he disappeared.
According to reports at the time, Larry was reported missing on November 28, 2009, after his parents became worried when he ran out of their home in distress—barefoot during a blizzard, without his keys or car—and never returned.
Larry was 25 years old at the time and worked at the No Frills supermarket in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Although a search began quickly, no sign of the missing man was ever found. His family had very little to hold onto after his disappearance. It seemed as though he had simply vanished without a trace.
According to the BBC, Larry’s relatives revealed that he had been suffering from hallucinations around the time he went missing.
“He was hearing voices that said ‘eat sugar’,” his mother said through a translator.
“He felt his heart was beating too hard and thought if he ate sugar, his heart would not beat so hard.”
According to Council Bluffs Police Captain Todd Weddum, Larry’s parents believed his unusual behavior may have been caused by the medication he was taking.
Then, a decade later in 2019, a heartbreaking discovery changed everything.
The former store worker’s remains were found inside the same supermarket in Council Bluffs where he had worked. His body was discovered wedged in an 18-inch gap between a cooler and the wall.
Reports say Larry’s body was found by a group of workers who had been asked to remove shelves and coolers. The store had already been closed for three years, and the building was being cleared out.
Using DNA collected from his parents, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation was able to confirm Larry’s identity. The clothing found on his body also matched what he had been wearing at the time he disappeared.
According to the Des Moines Register, Larry’s death was ruled accidental.
Investigators concluded that after leaving his family home, Larry likely went to the supermarket and climbed on top of the store’s coolers. He then appears to have fallen into the narrow gap between the units and the wall, where he became trapped.
Sergeant Brandon Danielson said it would have been a 12-foot fall, and the noise from the freezer units was so loud that there was “probably no way anyone heard him.”
“Our heads are spinning, finding this out after so many years, and it is distressing, it makes us feel a lot of pain,” Larry’s father, Victor Murillo, said after his son was found in 2019.
“They closed the building. The freezers weren’t working anymore. So how can a body just be there?”
Even more haunting, former employees said they had complained for years about a terrible smell coming from the freezer area, but those concerns were repeatedly ignored.
Rest in peace, Larry Ely Murillo-Moncada.
