The death of a young doctor inside a Dollar Tree freezer in Miami sounded, at first, like the setup to a rumor. Instead, it became a tightly documented case that now hinges on the cold language of an autopsy report. The findings do more than explain how she died; they sketch the final, disoriented hours of a woman who had come to the city to see family and never made it home.
Investigators have now confirmed that 32-year-old physician Helen Massiell Garay Sanchez died from environmental hypothermia after becoming trapped in that commercial freezer, with alcohol use listed as a contributing factor. The clinical terms are stark, but behind them is a story about personal vulnerability, a workplace environment, and the limits of how quickly anyone realized she was in trouble.
What the Autopsy Shows About Her Final Hours
The medical examiner concluded that the cause of death for 32-year-old Helen Massiell Garay Sanchez was environmental hypothermia, meaning her body temperature fell so low that her organs could no longer function. In plain terms, she froze to death inside the Miami Dollar Tree freezer, a place designed to keep products at subzero temperatures, not people. According to the official findings, the cold environment was the primary driver of her death, with the report explicitly describing environmental hypothermia as the fatal mechanism in this confined space, a conclusion reflected in the medical examiner determination.
Investigators also tied her condition to alcohol, a detail that shifts the picture from simple accident to a more complicated chain of risk factors. The autopsy found that Alcohol use contributed to her death at the Miami Dollar Tree, noting intoxication as a factor that likely dulled her judgment and slowed her response to the extreme cold. That finding is spelled out in an Autopsy summary that identifies alcohol as a contributing condition rather than the direct cause, a key distinction for both medical clarity and any future legal scrutiny…