MIAMI (TCN) — The cause of death has been revealed for a woman who was found dead inside a Dollar Tree freezer in December 2025.
On Feb. 11, the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner’s Office said 32-year-old Helen Massiell Garay Sanchez died from environmental hypothermia, with ethanol use as a contributory cause, NBC Miami reports. According to the Mayo Clinic, hypothermia occurs when the body’s core temperature drops below 95 degrees. Garay Sanchez’s blood alcohol level was 0.112%. The legal limit for driving is 0.08%.
On Dec. 14, 2025, a Dollar Tree employee found Garay Sanchez’s body in a walk-in freezer in an employees-only area. Garay Sanchez had reportedly entered the store near closing time the day before and did not buy anything but did go to the employees-only area, where she was discovered the following morning.
Garay Sanchez’s family filed a $50 million wrongful death suit against Dollar Tree alleging the store did not protect shoppers from harm, like the walk-in freezer, and did not establish “reasonable safety policies and procedures,” the New York Post reports.
After the suit was filed, NBC Miami reported that Miami Police spokesperson Kiara Delva said, “We’re not sure the state of mind of that woman, we’re not sure if she intentionally went into the freezer on her own will or if it was something completely accidental.”
A police spokesperson told People they obtained video surveillance footage showing Garay Sanchez walking into the freezer on her own. “This is why we know there was no foul play,” the spokesperson said. According to People, police also ruled out mental illness as a factor in her death.
Garay Sanchez was an anesthesiologist from Nicaragua and is survived by her husband and two children.
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