Horrified tip workers hit by ‘terrible stench’ find body of elderly man in freezer that had been removed from flat in house clearance as man, 50, is arrested on suspicion of murder
- The body of an elderly man was found inside the freezer in Exhall, Warwickshire
- It had been moved from a Birmingham flat clearance by a housing association
- A 50-year-old man – believed to be known to the victim – was arrested in Derby
A 50-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a tip worker found the body of an elderly man when he opened a discarded freezer.
The freezer had been moved from a flat clearance in Birmingham to a waste management centre in Colliery Lane, Exhall, before the shocking discovery.
The victim is yet to be formally identified and a post-mortem will be carried out tomorrow to help with the identification.
Police said the 50-year-old suspect is believed to have been known to the victim and was arrested in Derby.
West Midlands Police said enquiries were ongoing and a murder investigation has been launched.
The body was found in a freezer that was transported to Colliery Lane, Exhall, from a flat in Birmingham. (Pictured above is a tip on Colliery Lane, Exhall
One employee based on the company estate, who did not wish to be named, said: ‘We heard the body was stuffed inside a fridge at first.
‘But it looks like it was found in a chest freezer and as the workmen were unloading it at the skip place it opened up and they found the body.
‘They have two sites around here which deal with vans and lorries from house clearances for councils as well as unloading commercial skips.
‘It’s like something from a mafia film and not what you’d expect to happen on an industrial estate in Coventry.’
A second employee, who also wished to remain anonymous, said: ‘The place was swarming with police the other day but its been quiet since.
‘We wondered what was going on but when we heard it was a body found in a freezer, we couldn’t quite believe it.
‘It’s a really horrible thing to have happened. I know some of the lads up there but they’ve been told not to say anything. It must have been awful.’
Other workers on the industrial estate said there had been a ‘terrible stench’ coming from Budget Skip Services site for the past week.
One man, who did not want to be named, added: ‘There were police and forensics crawling all over the site at the weekend.
‘We’d noticed this terrible stench coming from there for about a week. It was awful, like nothing I’d ever smelled before – but we didn’t think too much of it.
‘Then when this happened, it explained a lot. I really hope it wasn’t the smell of a decomposing body – but that’s what I fear it was.
‘It certainly gives you the creeps to think the smell of death was in the air here. I don’t even want to think about it really.’
The body was found at the large industrial estate around 5pm on Friday.
A police statement said: ‘We’ve launched a murder investigation after a body was found at a recycling unit in Warwickshire on Friday 21 August.
‘We were made aware that a freezer – transported to a waste management centre in Colliery Lane, Exhall – had been opened and the body of an elderly man had been discovered.
‘The freezer had been moved from a flat clearance by a housing association in Birmingham.
‘A post-mortem examination is due to take place tomorrow (Wednesday 26 August) which will help identify the man.
‘Today (Tuesday) a 50-year-old man, who is believed to have been known to the victim, has been arrested on suspicion of murder and taken into police custody in Derby.’