A devastated family is fighting for answers and accountability after the heartbreaking death of Helen Massiell Garay Sanchez, a dedicated 32-year-old anesthesiologist and mother of two, whose body was discovered frozen in a Dollar Tree store's walk-in freezer in Miami, Florida.
Her naked body was found the morning of December 14, 2025, by a shocked employee who opened the cooler from the stockroom and immediately called 911.
Miami police stated there was no evidence she was forced into the freezer, leaving the heartbreaking mystery of how the young doctor ended up trapped inside overnight.
The family's $50 million wrongful death lawsuit, filed in Miami-Dade County, targets Dollar Tree and store manager Yanelkis Gonzalez claiming Gonzalez was informed that a customer, Sanchez, had not left the store but "failed to review or utilise available surveillance footage to determine whether Sanchez remained inside the Dollar Tree Store."
The complaint further alleges that Gonzalez 'failed to timely discover Sanchez’s presence inside the walk-in freezer and to render reasonable aid or summon emergency assistance.'
The lawsuit states the manager and chain 'failing to implement, train employees on, and enforce reasonable closing-time policies and procedures to ensure that all patrons and invitees, including Sanchez, had exited the Dollar Tree Store prior to closing.'
The family insists the freezer was faulty and that store workers failed to prevent shoppers from entering it, turning a routine shopping trip into an unimaginable nightmare.
Sanchez had entered the store the evening before closing, with no purchases recorded, and was seen on video accessing a restricted employee-only area before entering the freezer.
She spent the freezing night alone, unable to escape, leading to her tragic death from exposure.
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