Woman arrested after selling mother's corpse in freezer for $30 at yard sale

US: A 56-year-old woman from Goldsboro, North Carolina have been arrested by the police after she sold a freezer containing her mother’s corpse for $30 at a yard sale, telling the buyer it was “a time capsule”.

Police say the woman identified as Marcella Jean Lee had been on the run for three months after she sold the freezer containing the frozen corpse of her mother who was last seen alive in August 2015 to a neighbor.

After selling the freezer to her neighbor, Lee instructed the buyer not to open the taped shut freezer, telling the neighbor it was a time capsule.

Lee told the buyer that church members would come and collect the freezer’s contents.

The neighbor who later opened the freezer in late May after no one showed up for weeks reported to police when she found a corpse inside the freezer. 

'I have a serious problem. My neighbor sold me a deep freezer, she said in a 911 call.

'She sold me her frozen mother for $30. How do you do something like that?' said the neighbor.

'I just opened it and there's a body in there I think. I am freaking out.' 

 

Arma Roush, last seen alive in August 2015, nine months before her daughter sold her body in a freezer.

The police later identified the corpse as 75-year-old Arma Roush.

The neighbor said Lee told her the items inside the freezer were for a Sunday project and that the church would come pick them up. 

'I was just in shock,' the neighbor recalled.

'I opened it up for a second time and my heart went into my throat. I ran out of the house and called 911.'

According to an autopsy carried out on the body, it revealed that Ms Roush, who was Marcella Lee’s mother, had not died by foul play.

Lee who was arrested by the police 160km south of the Goldsboro home at Carolina Beach, where she lived with her mother has been charged with failing to report a death.