New Alabama homeowners find decomposed body of special-needs teen stuffed into a freezer in their back yard; father confesses

New homeowners cleaning up their Alabama property over the weekend made the horrifying discovery that the overturned freezer in their back yard was a de facto tomb. The couple suspected of populating the freezer have since been thrown into the Henry County Jail.

Lane Keith and his wife had agreed to clean up the mess left by the previous tenants as part of their deal with the seller. On Sunday, they set to work clearing out the derelict freezer in the back yard to lighten the load when later hauling it off the property. They quickly realized there was more inside than mildew, cardboard, and plastic.

"The freezer was going to be the last thing in the back yard that we were going to move, and we went to go move it and couldn't move it," Lane told WDHN-TV. "So my wife flipped the lids off the freezer, moved the tarp back and the cardboard boxes, and there laid a hand."

Henry County Sheriff Eric Blankenship told WTVY-TV his office received a 911 call around 11:37 a.m on Sunday concerning a corpse at 296 Bradford Drive in Headland.

The sheriff indicated the body had been in the freezer since late August. The decomposition was so far along that the sex of the victim was not immediately clear. While the autopsy results are not yet in from the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences, officials suspect that the remains belonged to 19-year-old Logan Michael Halstead of Headland.

Halstead died earlier this year and apparently suffered from various medical issues including spina bifida.

Hours after the discovery, deputies tracked down the victim's parents, 44-year-old Michael Halstead and his 43-year-old wife Karen Halstead, in Jack, Alabama. They had previously rented the house but allegedly skipped out on the rent, spurring the landlord to sell to the new owners, reported WDHN.

The couple has been charged with one count of abuse of a corpse. Depending on the results of the autopsy, they might also be charged with murder and/or other charges, according to Sheriff Blankenship.

"Very tragic, very horrific scene, for, you know, a situation like this, especially to involve a child and parents," said Blankenship. "This definitely caught us all off guard."

It appears the tragedy was brought to the attention of law enforcement several weeks ago to no effect.

WTVY reported that the father allegedly told Headland Police officers on Oct. 11 that he left his son's body in a freezer without his wife's involvement. Officers apparently searched the residence but failed to find the remains that had been wrapped in tarps and blankets and stuffed into a box.

Despite the multiple steps involved in hiding the body, Halstead, a Coast Guard veteran, claimed he couldn't remember how his son's remains found their way into the freezer, blaming a manic episode, said Sheriff Blankenship.

Halstead reportedly told investigators his special-needs son had defecated and made a mess, such that he needed to leave the room to get something to clean it up. When he returned, his son was allegedly dead. The father claimed that he subsequently tried to hide the death from his wife and his other two children, hiding the body, then moving the family into a hotel.

State attorneys have suggested the account Halstead and his wife provided to investigators appeared rehearsed and suffered from various inconsistencies.

The same day that Halstead confessed to Headland Police, he reportedly was arrested by Dothan Police officers for failing to appear in court on domestic abuse charges.

Following the couple's latest arrest, the Alabama Department of Human Resources took custody of the Halsteads' remaining children, who are twins.

New homeowners discover body of dead special needs teen in a freezer; parents now chargedyoutu.be

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