The circumstances surrounding the death of Larry Ely Murillo-Moncada have baffled both his loved ones as well as investigators ever since his body was found in 2019.

Although the discovery of the 25-year-old’s corpse offered his family some closure after they went ten long years without answers, the location of it only deepened the mystery surrounding his demise. But a series of shop workers have since shared their take on the baffling case, explaining their thoughts about the reason why it took so long for the fate of former ‘No Frills’ employee to be discovered.

According to his relatives, Larry was reported missing in November 2009 after he fled from his parents house in the city of Council Bluffs, Iowa, during a blizzard while he was suffering from hallucinations.
It was the last any of them would see of him, as for the next ten years, the trail went cold and his disappearance went unsolved – until renovations began at the supermarket where he used to work.
In 2019, a team of workers were inside the No Frills store where Larry was employed to remove shelves and freezers.

The shop had been shut for around three years at this point and it was finally being cleared out – although no one had any idea about what they would find among the discarded items.
The clean-up crew horrifically discovered a human body wedged behind one of the 12ft tall freezers in the branch, which was confirmed to be Larry following extensive DNA testing and due to the clothing he was wearing.

It is believed that he had been dead in the store for seven years while it was still operating, and a further three after it closed it’s doors in 2016. People have struggled to get their heads around why nobody knew that Larry was trapped and why someone wouldn’t have heard his cries for help, although police reckon the noises from the fridges would have muffled his pleas.

As well as this, others have been unable to comprehend how shoppers and staff were not alerted to the 25-year-old’s presence behind the fridges by the smell which was likely coming from his decomposing body.

Shop workers who have similar roles to Larry have shared their theories about why nobody seemed to notice the stench in a Reddit thread discussing the mystery. One social media user suggested that it would be a lot easier than you may think to overlook pungent smells in environments such as a supermarket.

They explained: “As a grocery vendor, I can definitely say stores and grocery backrooms are full of various horrible stinks at all times. Sometimes it’s old dairy, sometimes it’s trash, and if there was a dead body in one of my stores, I probably wouldn’t think twice about the smell.” “I can totally see how this happened, as sad and hard to imagine as it is!”

Another Redditor reiterated the point, explaining that a lot of people ‘underestimate how disgusting most stores really are’ and the strong smells which linger around as a result. They added: “I was the warehouse receiver for many years and I developed an immunity to even the worst odours. Rats would constantly be crawling into boxes and crates and dying, and I would be the last to know unless I came across the corpse, despite the warehouse being my ‘department’. So sadly, this story does not at all surprise me.”

“There were corners of my store, especially the damages area, that literally no one else would approach with a 10 metre pole.” Others weren’t completely convinced, with two mortuary workers explaining that the scent of a dead body is ‘the worst smell on earth’, so they still weren’t sure how Larry went unnoticed.

“The pungent nature of it alone is the most distinguishable thing in the world,” one of them explained. “I doubt any store or restaurant would be able to ignore it.” Although exactly what happened to Larry will forever remain unknown, a horrifying simulation of what may have occurred has given people an idea about what it may have been like being trapped behind the fridge.