A man who was found dead in a freezer is thought to have entered it to hide after he fled from police.
According to the Gilbert Police Department on Friday, Brandon Lee Buschman, 34, was discovered on June 26 in a chest freezer in the basement of an abandoned Minnesota house.
According to the department’s Facebook post, investigators’revealed that Buschman was last seen by individuals present in the home running from the upstairs section of the house owing to a probable police presence near the household’ after speaking with multiple people who knew him.
Buschman had an active outstanding warrant for his arrest, according to police.
‘Evidence on scene indicates that Buschman entered the freezer on his own accord,’ the department stated.
There was no evidence of injury or trauma from the autopsy, said the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office. The final report with toxicology results is expected to take a few weeks.
The older model freezer had a latching mechanism on its exterior and was not capable of being opened from the inside when shut.
However, investigators found a metal lawn ornament rod placed inside of the chest freezer pointed to the latching mechanism. It was inserted between the gasket and the manufactured edge, ‘preventing the rod from being able to manipulate the latching mechanism from the inside’, the department stated.
The freezer was not on when authorities found Buschman’s body and there were no utilities connected at the home since April 2022, police said. The home had not been occupied since February of this year.
Police received a 911 call reporting a dead man found in the freezer of the residence in Biwabik, which is about 30 miles southwest of Babbitt, where Buschman was from.
‘The reports from the individuals were very unclear to us as to exactly when it was that Buschman had fled,’ Lt Chelsea Trucano told the News Tribune.
Investigators are working to determine when Buschman was last seen alive.
The incident comes more than six months after a man’s body was found in a freezer box in a South Philadelphia home and his son was taken into custody.