At her California home, an 87-year-old former murder detective was discovered packed in a freezer. On Sunday, September 19, a relative of Miriam Travis requested that police check on her. And also, officers arrived at her house in Riverside County about 9:35 a.m. And interrogated her daughter Carol, who lived with her, according to the Press-Enterprise. Carol’s assertions regarding her mother’s location were contradictory, according to Riverside Police spokesman Javier Cabrera. As well, Cabrera described the house as “disheveled,” with hoarding-like conditions and trash piled high. Officers discovered the 87-year-body old’s in a working freezer in the garage after smelling a foul odor.
Her corpse had not deteriorated. Therefore an autopsy will be performed.
And Carol was interrogated and freed as investigators tried to figure out how her mother died and what, if any, part she played in her death or the treatment of her body. Travis worked as a sergeant in the murder division of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department from 1979 until 1990 when she resigned and relocated to Riverside County with her spouse. Kerri Nickell, Travis’s step-granddaughter from Oklahoma, described the octogenarian as a “wonderful grandma” who would take all 12 grandchildren to Disneyland every Christmas. When her husband died in 1992, however, Travis abruptly changed the locks on her house and broke off communication with her extended family.
Nickell, who characterized Travis and her daughter as “kind of hermits,” added, “It was like here is my grandma one day, and then we never heard from her again.” Neighbors of the victim agree, with one stating that he has not seen her since November. And also, Randy Hayes, 63, who has lived next to Travis for 27 years, characterized the mother and daughter as “reclusive” and claimed he didn’t know anything about them. Over the years, he would have occasional chats with Travis, which grew fewer and less regular.
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