Just before a Dollar Tree opened Sunday morning, a woman’s body was found in a store freezer, Miami police said.
Officers got to the discount store, 968 SW Eighth St. in Little Havana, around 8 a.m. after an employee found the woman later identified by police as 32-year-old Helen Massiell Garay Sanchez.
As of Sunday afternoon, “It’s an Unclassified Death,” Miami police officer Michael Vega wrote in an email, but “we have to wait for the medical examiner’s report.”
Crime scene tape and a Miami police car are in front of the Dollar Tree store at 968 SW Eighth St. in Little Havana on Sunday morning, Dec. 14, 2025. A woman’s body was found in the freezer Sunday morning, police say. David J. Neal [email protected]
The Goodwill store next door to the Dollar Tree and the Taco Bell just east did their usual Sunday business. Across Southwest Eighth Street, Little Havana residents recorded police officers and investigating detectives going in and out of the Dollar Tree.
One of the freezers inside the Dollar Tree store in Little Havana where a woman’s body was found on Sunday morning, Dec. 14, 2025. Michael Butler [email protected]
Sanchez’s grieving family members consoled each other behind crime scene tape in front of the Goodwill store. Once they came from behind the tape, they politely declined to speak with media before leaving once the woman’s body was removed.
The store, which normally opens at 8 a.m., opened shortly after 1 p.m. as crowds stood on the sidewalk chatting amongst each other, waiting to get in. A manager greeted customers as they came in, saying, “Hello” to all, not something normally done at the store.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
This story was originally published December 14, 2025 at 10:47 AM.
David J. Neal
Miami Herald
Since 1989, David J. Neal’s domain at the Miami Herald has expanded to include writing about Panthers (NHL and FIU), Dolphins, old school animation, food safety, fraud, naughty lawyers, bad doctors and all manner of breaking news. He drinks coladas whole. He does not work Indianapolis 500 Race Day.
