The dead body of a child believed to be Janiya Thomas, who has been missing for more than a year, was found Sunday inside a freezer at the girl's grandmother's house in Manatee County, according to the Bradenton, Fla., police.
"I have been notified that a child's body was found, and it is suspected she is the missing 11-year-old girl," said Police Chief Michael Radzilowski, according to the Bradenton Herald.
Thomas' distraught aunt and grandmother contacted authorities after they broke open the freezer after seeing news reports that she was missing. "They looked in it, saw what they thought was a body and called us," said police spokesman Lt. James Racky, according to the New York Daily News.
Thomas' mother moved the freezer to the house last week, with the help of an unidentified black male, said Racky.
The shocking discovery was made just days after the girl's mother, Keishanna Thomas, refused to answer questions about her whereabouts to detectives and to a judge, for which she was charged with contempt of court and taken into custody.
The child was not at her mother's residence when the Manatee County Sheriff's Office Child Protective Investigations arrived Friday to remove her, along with four of her siblings, from the house. There was no record of anyone seeing her since August 2014, according to Racky, reported the Orlando Sentinel.
"A medical examiner will have to confirm the body's identity through fingerprints and DNA and dental records before a conclusive report on the identity can be given," said Racky.
"But the location of the freezer was in a family residence so we are pretty sure it's going to be her, but we are not positive," he added.
