FILE: (Photo Credit: Paul Nelson)
TOOELE, UTAH – Police have confirmed the identity of the man whose body was found in a deceased woman’s freezer, but, there are still a lot of questions about how and when he died.
He’s been identified as 69-year-old Paul Mathers. He was the husband of Jeanne Sourone Mathers who lived in the retirement apartment complex. Investigators believe she knew he was in the freezer the entire time, but they still don’t know how long he was there.
Police were called to the Remington Park Apartments after a maintenance worker said he hadn’t seen the woman in two weeks.
She was found on her bed, and officers believe she may have died of natural causes. An investigator found her husband’s body inside a three- to four-foot-wide freezer while he was looking for clues to help him determine how long she had been deceased.
Sergeant Jeremy Hansen said police are getting wildly different statements from other residents about when they last saw a man there.
“People’s time frames, just like in any call — somebody can give you a description of a suspect and it could be close, or it could be a little bit off,” he said.
He added, “Some people were saying five years. Some people were saying eight years. So, it’s all over the place. That’s one thing we’re trying to do while we wait for the medical examiner to come back with their findings.”
Now that police have identified the man, the next question they’ll try to answer is how he died.
However, Hansen says that’s where this story gets even more bizarre. They can’t find a death certificate or any official record of Mathers passing away.
The medical examiner hasn’t revealed the exact cause of death, but Hansen said even after that happens, they might not ever know precisely how long Mathers was in that freezer.
I wish we had some kind of magic ball that we could [use to] say, ‘This is when it was,’ but, right now, we don’t.”
The Mathers had children, but Hansen says those kids live out of state and may not have been in touch with their parents.
