SAN DIEGO – A man who allegedly put his wife’s body in a freezer at their Allied Gardens home allegedly forced his friend at gunpoint to help cover up the incident, according to Thursday’s autopsy report.
A report from the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office states that the body of Margaret Haxby-Jones was found last December after her husband suffered a stroke and a friend came forward to tell the woman’s family where the body had been hidden for nearly nine years. .
The details come a week after San Diego police revealed their suspicions about the involvement of the husband, Robert Haxby, who died in February. Police say they are investigating whether Haxby hid the body so his wife’s benefits could continue to be paid. However, investigators were unable to gather enough evidence to prosecute the case.
Police did not respond to requests for comment Thursday about whether the unnamed friend who allegedly helped hide the body is being investigated for possible charges. A spokesperson for the district attorney referred questions to the police.
The body was found in a home on Zion Avenue near Eldridge Street, where Haxby-Jones and her husband lived.
A friend who spoke to investigators said he died at age 72 of natural causes, the autopsy report said. He was reportedly obese, in a deteriorating condition and suffering from dementia. However, the autopsy report says that, due to the body being hidden for a long time, the cause of his death was not yet known.
Her husband hid her death in order to get money, according to the report. He forced a friend, reportedly at gunpoint, to help put the body in a freezer in the back of the house, officials said. The body was hidden with a tarpaulin, and his friend was sworn to secrecy.
When her body was found, Haxby-Jones’ life became a mystery to be solved in the Allied Gardens community.
Haxby-Jones had worked as a nurse anesthetist for 20 years before retiring in 1999.
Haxby-Jones bought the Zion Avenue home in the mid-1980s, according to a woman connected to the family who spoke to the Union-Tribune. She married her husband but they both went against the Internal Revenue Service and $13,000 was placed on the home.
The matter with the IRS was resolved at the same time as his disappearance in 2015.
Between 2013 and 2020, police responded to the home nearly 20 times for calls ranging from welfare checks to mental health conditions to reports of elder abuse. None of these calls led to the discovery of his body.
According to her autopsy report, three weeks before her body was found, Haxby-Jones’ husband was hospitalized. Nearing her death, a friend told the family on Dec. 21 that Haxby-Jones was in a freezer in the backyard that was “overstuffed,” the autopsy report said.
The family went home and did not find the fridge that night. But the next day, the family returned to find the refrigerator mounted on the outside wall of the house, according to the report.
It was determined that Haxby-Jones was last seen about 10 years earlier, according to the report. He would have been 81 years old when he was found.
The police last week said that the case was placed in the area of unemployment as new information is awaited.
Lunetta writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.
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