San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office at the County Operations Center.
San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office at the County Operations Center. Photo by Ken Stone

Authorities have closed an investigation into the death of a woman whose body was found a year ago in a freezer at an Allied Gardens home.

Relatives visiting from out of town searched and found Mary Haxby-Jones dead inside the chest-style appliance at a residence in the 4900 block of Zion Avenue, according to the San Diego Police Department. Her body bore no signs of suspicious injuries.

An autopsy followed the discovery, late on the morning of Dec. 22, 2023. In the report recently completed by the county Medical Examiner’s Office, her manner and cause of death was listed as undetermined.

“At this point, based on the medical examiner’s conclusions and the investigative work performed by detectives, the suspicious-death investigation is inactive pending any additional or new information brought forward,” Lt. Jud Campbell said Thursday.

Detectives believe that Haxby-Jones, who would have been 81 years old at the time when her remains were found, had lived at the Zion Avenue home at some point and that she could have been missing or dead for up to nine years.

Based on interviews and other evidence, investigators eventually decided that her remains had been unlawfully put in the freezer by her husband, Robert Haxby. He died Feb. 3, less than two months after Haxby-Jones’ body was found, according to police.

Homicide detectives, involved due to the “unusual circumstances” of the case, contacted Social Security and Veterans Affairs authorities, suspecting that, murder or not, Haxby-Jones’ death might have been concealed so that her benefits would continue to be paid.

That also proved to be a dead end.

“At this point, a criminal case of benefits fraud cannot be substantiated because it is unclear beyond a reasonable doubt exactly when Haxby-Jones died,” Campbell said.