New homeowners find man’s body in freezer, Alabama cops say. His parents are charged
Homeowners were cleaning their new backyard when they saw a human hand inside a freezer, Alabama officials said.
Henry County deputies were called to the scene, where they reportedly opened the unplugged appliance and found a decomposing body. The man was identified as 19-year-old Logan Michael Halstead, who hadn’t been reported missing.
Now, the man’s mother and father are charged with abuse of a corpse. The sheriff’s office in a news release didn’t list attorney information for the parents, identified as 43-year-old Karen Tysinger Halstead and 44-year-old Michael Shane Halstead.
The case dates to Oct. 29, when deputies responded to a home in Headland, in the Dothan area and roughly 110 miles southeast of Montgomery. The Halstead family had rented the house before it was sold to new owners, Henry County Sheriff Eric Blankenship told McClatchy News in a phone interview.
The new owners spent the weekend cleaning the inside of the home before continuing their efforts outside. They were clearing the top of the backyard freezer “when they noticed the hand inside the freezer,” Blankenship said.
Deputies aren’t sure when Logan Halstead died but said it could have been “as early as June.” He was born with a spine condition called spina bifida, and his parents were his caretakers, according to the sheriff’s office.
The parents were found in Jack, Alabama, about 50 miles from their former home. They were arrested, booked into jail and given $175,000 bonds, officials said.
“The investigation is still on going and information will continue to be released as the case progresses,” Blankenship wrote in the news release. “The body of the deceased (has) been transported to the Alabama Department of Forensic Science for an official autopsy.”
As of Oct. 31, officials were working to determine Logan Halstead’s cause of death and said additional charges were possible. Anyone with information is asked to call the Henry County Task Force at 334-585-3131.
This story was originally published October 31, 2023 at 12:03 PM with the headline "New homeowners find man’s body in freezer, Alabama cops say. His parents are charged."
