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Remains found in freezer in Colorado, identified as missing 16-year-old girl from 2005

Remains found in freezer in Colorado, identified as missing 16-year-old girl from 2005



CNN

The human head and hands discovered in January in the freezer of a Colorado home have been identified as belonging to a 16-year-old girl who had been missing for nearly two decades, according to local authorities.

Amanda Overstreet was identified as the victim through DNA testing, according to a Friday news release from the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office. The teen’s head and hands were found on January 12 in the freezer of a recently sold home in Grand Junction, Colorado.

The remains were discovered by someone who came to the home for free to pick up the freezer, the sheriff’s office said.

Overstreet, believed to be “approximately 16 years old at the time of her disappearance,” had “not been seen or heard from since April 2005,” the sheriff’s office said. She was the daughter of the house’s previous owner.

There is no evidence that Overstreet was ever reported missing, and the “circumstances surrounding her disappearance remain under investigation,” the sheriff’s office said.

CNN has reached out to the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office for more information about Overstreet’s disappearance.

Authorities previously said they believed the discovery was an “isolated incident” and that there was no ongoing threat to the community.

The sheriff’s office has not released whether a cause of death has been determined.

According to CNN affiliate KJCT, a neighbor recalled seeing Overstreet walking to school before her disappearance.

“The last time we saw the little girl was when she was on her way to school,” Jameson Perez said.

“We were all guessing who it was,” he said of the discovered remains. “We started thinking, ‘Could it have been that little girl that was there?’”