Death of Larry Ely Murillo-Moncada

Larry Ely Murillo-Moncada was a 25-year-old Honduran man living in Council Bluffs, Iowa, who disappeared on November 28, 2009. According to his mother, Ana, he fled his parents' house barefoot at around 6:15 pm during a blizzard, wearing only a navy blue hoodie and light blue pants, without taking his keys or car. His family said he was experiencing hallucinations, hearing voices that told him to eat sugar, and believed his heart was beating too hard. His parents believed he had gone off prescribed medication, which they said caused him to act irrationally. The day before his disappearance, after working a Thanksgiving shift at a local No Frills supermarket, he reportedly seemed disoriented.

Murillo-Moncada was an employee of the No Frills store, located less than a mile from his home, though he was not scheduled to work on the day he vanished. His father, Victor Murillo, said that he, his wife, and friends searched for their son the morning after he disappeared but found no evidence of his whereabouts. During the initial 2009 investigation, police visited the No Frills store but left without further investigation after being told by his boss that he had not been seen and was not scheduled to work that day. Police also contacted other law enforcement agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as Murillo-Moncada had previously been deported to Honduras before returning to the United States.

Murillo-Moncada remained a missing person for nearly a decade. On the morning of January 24, 2019, contractors dismantling freezer units in the former No Frills store—vacant since 2016—discovered human remains. The remains were not formally identified as Murillo-Moncada until July 2019, six months later, though the blue clothing found on the body matched the description of what he had been wearing when he disappeared.

An investigation concluded that Murillo-Moncada had climbed on top of the refrigerator units and fallen sideways into an 18-inch gap between the wall and the back of the coolers, becoming trapped at the bottom of a 12-foot drop. Investigators noted that the noise of the refrigeration units would have made it unlikely for anyone to hear cries for help. Former employees said it was not unusual for staff to be in that storage area, used for informal breaks, and that employees often entered and exited the store even outside their shifts. The area was in a back room not visible to the public. Sergeant Brandon Danielson, who had investigated the original 2009 disappearance, said Murillo-Moncada's mother had long suspected he never left the store. Officials stated they did not know how odors from the decomposing remains went unnoticed for years.