An Arizona man gave police a bizarre excuse for keeping his father’s body in a freezer for years, according to a report.
Joseph Hill Jr., 51, told police he kept his dead father in a freezer in his backyard because he didn’t want to lose the house, according to AZFamily.
Police arrived at Hill’s Tempe home on Dorsey Lane after receiving a tip Oct. 22 about the body in the freezer, according to Maricopa County court records obtained by AZFamily.
The informant said the cold storage unit was covered with a tarp and blankets, according to cnn.
Hill admitted to police that his father died four years ago in Oregon, but otherwise blocked them by not allowing them to investigate the freezer.
Joseph Hill Jr., pictured in his mugshot, claimed he kept his dead father in a freezer so he could keep the house he owned in Tempe. Hill was not in the deed, detectives discovered
Detectives assigned to the case were unable to verify the death of his father, Joseph Hill Sr. They later discovered that Hill Sr. owned the Tempe home where his son lived.
They also discovered that Hill Sr. was collecting Social Security benefits until March 2023, which would have been years after his supposed death.
Detectives returned to the home days later, this time armed with a search warrant, according to a probable cause statement filed in court.
Police said that’s when “Hill’s demeanor began to change.” He revealed that if they looked, there would be ‘something in the freezer’.
When police opened the freezer, which had been without power for up to six months, they found human skeletal remains, as well as a “large amount of biological matter,” 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 yet to release an autopsy report.
Pictured: The modest Tempe home where Hill reportedly kept his father’s body for years.
Hill was arrested and charged with concealing a body and failing to report the death of someone who was not under the care of a health care provider, police said.
After Hill was read his Miranda rights, he said his father died in the Tempe home four years earlier, CNN reported.
He purchased the freezer the next day, according to the statement, and intended to bury his father on land he purchased in Strawberry, which is nearly a 100-mile drive from Tempe.
Hill told police he did not want to report his father’s death because it was not listed on the deed to the Tempe home and he was afraid of losing it, according to the statement.
Hill also explained that he lost power numerous times at his homes in Strawberry and Tempe due to fires, forcing him to move the freezer.
He reportedly attempted to bury it in the desert, but claimed he was dissuaded from doing so because “there were always people out there.”
Hill’s bail was set at $25,000. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Nov. 4.