When Ione went to her daughter's room and found the bed empty, she thought she had spent the night at her friend Tammy's house: Denise had a concert the day before with some coworkers. Her mother did not give much importance to her absence and she let the hours pass, but when the afternoon arrived and she saw that Denise did not return, she began to worry.
She called all of her daughter's friends and discovered that Denise had not slept with Tammy. There were raids and, in one of them, another friend, Debbie, discovered Denise's car with the doors open and the emergency lights on near the highway. The search for the young woman was frantic for the next three years. No one could believe in her disappearance. Until a hunch revealed the truth: a dangerous murderer had kept her hidden in a freezer.
John Joseph Famalaro was born on June 10, 1957 in Long Island (New York), although, the following year, the family moved to Santa Ana (California). Son of a North American Air Force veteran and a housewife, our protagonist grew up in a strict and conservative Christian home where education was emphasized. The parents inflicted physical corrections on him and his two older brothers - they hit them with a belt - and behaved in an abusive and intimidating manner, threatening them that their souls would go to hell if they sinned.
Added to this was the little interaction with the rest of the neighbors or faithful of the church, which they attended regularly, and, therefore, there was little socialization. In addition, John was teased by his classmates, who were nicknamed “Femalaro,” because he was effeminate and sweet, “a little stooped” and lonely.
In his teens, John was sent to seminary, not with the hope that he would become a priest, but so, according to his mother, “a lot of that would rub off on him.” After graduation, the young man entered a Catholic liberal arts university and there he met his first girlfriend, Ruth. The couple continued the romance until she suffered a miscarriage and became pregnant again. This was when Ruth decided to abandon John and give the child up for adoption.
On the other hand, John's parents decided to move to Prescott Valley (Arizona), but John chose to stay with his maternal grandmother and try to pursue a career as a chiropractor. He didn't get it. So he got into the house painting business and set up his own business in a Laguna Hills warehouse.
During this time, John became more sociable and had several girlfriends, people saw him as a boy with a good sense of humor and described him as a funny, intelligent, kind, respectful, considerate and polite guy. But also as someone reserved and manipulative.
When he turned thirty, John began to have sudden mood swings, becoming withdrawn and depressed, but at the same time he opened his mind more when it came to sex. Let us remember that he had been educated under a deep and emasculating religious conviction.
However, on May 27, 1991, just a week before committing his first crime, John called a helpline for people with depression and suicidal thoughts. The call lasted 42 minutes.
Around two in the morning on June 3, 1991, 23-year-old Denise Huber's car suffered a setback: she had a flat tire. The young woman was returning home after attending a concert with some coworkers and, in the distance, John was observing the scene. The predator had been looking for a possible victim for several hours.
When he saw Denise, he approached with his car, offered to fix the puncture, but when he got close to her he took out a hammer and hit her on the head. He then put her in her vehicle and drove to her paint store where he raped her. When he finished, he picked up the hammer again and slammed it against the young woman up to thirty times, causing her death.
At no point did the murderer think about getting rid of his victim's body, but rather he stripped it naked, put it in a freezer and kept the murder weapon, the purse and the girl's belongings in a box. Meanwhile, Denise's parents began a frantic search to find her daughter.
A friend found her car abandoned on the road with the doors open and the emergency lights on, authorities discovered that Denise's purse, keys and belongings were missing.
Over the next few weeks, clues were sought and every physical and human means possible was used to find her. Helicopters, canine units, hundreds of agents, dozens of volunteers... But the search was fruitless. “It seemed like Denise had completely vanished,” the former Costa Mesa police chief even said.
In July 1994, the Hubers' fortunes changed thanks to a turn of events. At that time, John was taking care of his sick parents, so he had moved to Prescott Valley (Arizona) where, in addition, he continued with his painting business. That summer, a retired couple, Jack and Elaine Court, wanted to set up a local shop and sell painting supplies, so they contacted John.
The couple went to John's property to buy some items, but something caught their attention. Elaine noticed a moving truck parked in the backyard and apparently abandoned, judging by the weeds near the tires. That made them suspect that it was a stolen vehicle, so they wrote down the license plate and told the police.
When the agent looked up the truck's details, he found that it had been stolen six months ago, so he proceeded to visit John. The sheriff's deputy waited for the man to return, but in the meantime he made a series of checks. Then, he discovered chemicals outside the truck and an electrical cord coming out of the back. Everything pointed to a drug laboratory.
The police notified narcotics and a team showed up minutes later. Upon further searching the truck, they did not find drugs, but a freezer: “Inside there were plastic bags, obviously with something inside. There was a smell and I noticed frozen blood at the bottom of the freezer. "When we opened the plastic bag and peeled it off, I could see an arm, and when we started to open the bag further, it appeared to be a young adult woman."
The image was horrendous: Denise was on her knees, with her head bowed and her arms handcuffed behind her back, and a cloth had been stuffed into her mouth, which was taped shut. At that moment, John arrived at his property and with astonishing calm he did not flinch when they pointed out the freezer.
While several agents continued searching the vehicle, where they located a box with a woman's belongings - purse, keys, clothes and a bloody hammer - John was detained and taken to the police station where he did not want to explain anything about why he had a woman's body. in the freezer.
The freezer and the box were not the only evidence found in this place. A hidden underground room of sorts was also discovered at the back of the house's basement. And, although there were no more victims, the police believed they were dealing with a possible serial killer. From there, Arizona County contacted other counties to try to find out the identity of the woman in the freezer.
After the relevant investigations, it was confirmed that the body belonged to Denise Huber, who disappeared in June 1991. The family was devastated when they heard the news. They still had not lost hope in finding the young woman.
On April 7, 1997, John Famalaro was tried for the first-degree murder of Denise Huber. The accused denied the facts, but the evidence was irrefutable: the man nicknamed The icebox killer had kidnapped, raped and beaten the victim to death, in addition to having hidden his body for three years.
The California Court sentenced him to the death penalty and, since then, John has been awaiting execution in San Quentin State Prison. The appeals filed by his lawyers alleging errors in the process have been of no use, since the Supreme Court of the United States ratified the sentence in 2011.
