An Arizona man gave police a bizarre excuse to keep his father’s corpse in the freezer for years, a report says.
Joseph Hill Jr., 51, told police he stored his late father in an upright freezer in his backyard because he didn’t want to lose the house. AZFamily.
Police arrived at Hill’s Tempe home on Dorsey Lane after receiving a tip about the body in the freezer on Oct. 22, according to Maricopa County court records obtained by AZFamily.
According to the tipster, the cold room was covered with a tarpaulin and blankets CNN.
Hill admitted to police that his father had died in Oregon four years ago, but further obstructed them by not allowing them to investigate the freezer.
Joseph Hill Jr., pictured in his mugshot, claimed he kept his late father in a freezer so he could keep the house he owned in Tempe. Hill was not on the deed, detectives discovered
Detectives assigned to the case were unable to verify the death of his father, Joseph Hill Sr. They then discovered that Hill Sr. owned the house in Tempe where his son lived.
They also found out that Hill Sr. received Social Security benefits until March 2023, which would have been years after his alleged death.
Detectives returned to the home days later, this time armed with a search warrant, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in court.
Police said Hill’s “behavior began to change.” He revealed that if they went looking, there would be “something in the freezer.”
When police opened the freezer, which had been without power for six months, they found human skeletal remains and a “large amount of biological material,” according to court documents.
Authorities have yet to verify whether the human remains belong to Hill’s father, and the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office has not yet released an autopsy report.
Pictured: the modest home in Tempe where Hill reportedly kept his father’s body for years
Hill was arrested and charged with concealment of a body and failure to report the death of a person not under the care of a health care provider, police said.
After Hill was read his Miranda rights, he said his father had died four years earlier at the Tempe home, CNN reported.
According to the affidavit, he bought the freezer the next day and planned to eventually bury his father on a plot of land he bought in Strawberry, which is nearly 100 miles from Tempe by car.
Hill told police he did not want to report his father’s death because he was not on the deed to the Tempe home and was afraid of losing it, the affidavit said.
Hill also explained that he had lost power numerous times in his Strawberry and Tempe homes due to fire, forcing him to move the freezer.
He reportedly tried to bury it in the desert, but claimed he was prevented from doing so because there were “always people out there.”
Hill’s bond was set at $25,000. A preliminary hearing will take place on November 4.
