Relatives of recently deceased 80-year-old find a body in his freezer

Relatives cleaning out a storage unit belonging to 80-year-old Francis “Frank” Julian of Lewiston, Maine, found the body of a dead woman in an unplugged freezer among his possessions on Oct. 21, the Bangor Daily News reports. Julian died on Oct. 1.

Maine State Police officials say the remains may be those of Kitty Wardwell, who went missing in 1983 at age 29, The Associated Press reports. Julian was her boyfriend at the time and also the last person known to see her alive, according to the AP.

According to the Bangor Daily News:

Julian reported Wardwell missing July 11, 1983, telling Salem, N.H., police that he dropped the 29-year-old woman off at the El Rancho Motel in Salem after a fight and then traveled back to Maine without her. Marla Collins, Kitty Wardwell’s sister, reported her missing to the Maine State Police on Nov. 23, 1983.

“Remains have been found, but we don’t know whose body this is definitively at this time,” Stephen McCausland, Maine Department of Public Safety spokesman, told the Bangor Daily News. “We have put both families in the loop about the discovery and we have interviewed a number of members of both families, but the final determination will be made by the medical examiner.”

The freezer was unplugged when the relatives discovered it, the Bangor Daily News reports.

“I’m not getting into anything about the condition of the body,” McCausland told the Bangor Daily News. “[Julian] had been renting that storage unit since 1992.”

An autopsy is scheduled for Oct. 24, the AP reports.