Skip to content 
The store worker’s remains were found at the local supermarket in Council Bluffs where he had worked. His body was discovered wedged in an 18-inch gap between the cooler and a wall.
Credit: Council Bluffs Police Department
As per reports, Larry’s corpse was found by a group of workers who had been ordered to remove shelves and coolers. The store had been shut for three years at this point and the premises were being cleared.
Using DNA collected from his parents, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation were able to identify Larry. The clothing on his body also matched what he was said to have been wearing at the time of his disappearance.
According to the Des Moines Register, Larry’s death was ruled accidental.
Investigators looking into the accident concluded that Larry had gone into the supermarket after leaving his family home, thereafter climbing atop the store’s coolers. There, he must have fallen into the gap between the units and the wall, tragically becoming trapped in the process.
Sergeant Brandon Danielson said it would have been a 12-foot fall, while the noise of the freezer units would have been ‘so loud’ there was ‘probably no way anyone heard him.’
“Our heads are spinning, finding this out after so many years, and it is distressing, it makes us feel a lot of pain,” said Larry’s father, Victor Murillo, after the discovery of his son in 2019.