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BOUNTIFUL, Utah (KSL News/AP) -- Police checking on the welfare of a 50-year-old Bountiful woman and her 18-year-old son found a blood trail to a freezer where they discovered a body.
The unidentified body was stuffed in the chest freezer head first. Officers could not tell whether it was male or female, or whether it was one of the occupants of the Orchard Dr. apartment. They were waiting for it to thaw before removing it.
Police checked the apartment at the request of the family of the mother and son. The two had not been heard from since Friday. Monday morning, family members accompanied police to the apartment.
Police Lt. Randy Picket said they entered the home at 11:15 a.m. In the basement, they found a bloody mattress, a .22-caliber shell casing and the swath of blood leading to the small freezer.
Lt. Randy Picket: "They open up the lid, and inside it they find a body. The body has been put in upside down, so all we can see are the legs."
Police say the body had been in the freezer at least eight hours. The body was frozen solid.
There were no signs of a break in or struggle.
Kathy Porter is a visiting teacher from the mother and son's LDS ward. She visited their apartment once a month. She says the mother spoke highly of her son.
Kathy Porter, neighbor: "She loves him. She said he was a very good boy. She had very positive things to say about him. Her only concern was that it seemed like he didn't have a lot of friends."
All neighbors describe the two as quiet and private. They say that the mother and son moved from Montana two years ago.
The son, 18-year-old Jeremy Houk, had plans for college at Weber State University in the fall. He also spoke of going on an LDS mission.
Police were looking for the car the mother and son shared, a 2001 or 2002 blue Toyota Corolla with a temporary license plate.
(The Associated Press Contributed to this story.)
