TEMPE, AZ. (KPHO/Gray News) – An Arizona man allegedly kept his father’s body in his backyard freezer for years because he didn’t want to lose his home.

Tempe police received an online tip that a man was hiding his father’s body in a freezer behind a house.

When officers arrived, 51-year-old Joseph Daniel Hill Jr. said his father died in Oregon four years ago. They met with.

Hill denied officers’ request to examine the backyard freezer, and the case was turned over to detectives for follow-up. KPHO reported.

Investigators Joseph Hill Sr. They used “extensive sources” to learn more about him but found no record of his death.

Detectives found that Hill Sr. was still listed as the owner of the home and was receiving Social Security benefits until March 2023.

Detectives obtained a search warrant and returned to the home.

Hill Jr.’s demeanor changed and he told police “something was going to happen in the freezer,” according to documents.

Once in the backyard, detectives removed a tarp, two moving blankets, several layers of saran wrap, bed linens, two ratchet straps and lots of duct tape from the freezer.

Inside, police found skeletal remains and “a large amount of biological material,” documents said.

After being read his Miranda Rights, the man allegedly told detectives that he was there when his father “took his last breath” at the home more than four years ago.

He allegedly admitted that he did not report the death because it was not included in the deed and he was afraid of losing his home.

He bought the freezer the next day after his father died. He said he planned to bury himself on a plot of land he purchased, but a fire broke out on the property and he lost power and eventually brought the freezer back to Tempe.

The freezer had been left without power in the backyard for the past four to six months, documents said.

He was arrested and charged with one count of failure to report a death and one count of concealing a body.

The body was identified as Hill Sr. It is now up to the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office to confirm whether he died and try to determine how he died.

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