A family in mourning says they are still “not getting any answers” after a 32-year-old doctor and mother of two was found dead inside a walk-in freezer at a Dollar Tree store in Miami — an unsettling case that has raised questions about her final hours and how she ended up in a restricted, employee-only area.

The woman, identified as Dr. Helen Massiell Garay Sanchez, was discovered on the morning of Sunday, December 14, inside the Dollar Tree at 968 SW 8th Street in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood, according to local reporting and statements attributed to police. Investigators have said there were no immediate signs of foul play, and the death remains classified as undetermined/unclassified as authorities await the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s report. (For confirmed incident basics and the family’s comments, see coverage from PEOPLE and local station reporting via Local 10.)

“We’re not getting any answers”

Nearly a week after the discovery, Sanchez’s cousin, Daniela Cortez, said the family is baffled by what has been shared publicly so far. “The thing is that even the family has a lot of questions,” she said, adding: “We don’t know how this happened either. And we’re not getting any answers.”

The frustration is sharpened by the sheer ordinariness of the setting: a discount store on a busy street, at the edge of a neighborhood known more for cafés and corner markets than crime-scene tape. For relatives, the unanswered “how” and “why” now sit alongside the harder reality of grief.

What police say happened

Authorities have said Sanchez entered the store the night before she was found. Police accounts reported by local outlets indicate she did not purchase anything and instead moved into a restricted employee-only area where the walk-in freezer is located. Surveillance footage reportedly shows her entering the freezer close to the store’s closing time at 10 p.m., and she was not seen leaving.

The next morning, at around 8 a.m., an employee called police after discovering a body inside the store. Some reporting has stated Sanchez was found unclothed. Authorities have not released a detailed public account explaining how she gained access to staff-only areas, whether the freezer door was functioning normally, or what prevented her from exiting.

Police have said they found no signs of foul play at the scene. The case remains open while investigators await the medical examiner’s findings, which are expected to clarify the cause and manner of death.

A doctor and a mother, far from home

Sanchez was an anesthesiologist from Nicaragua and a mother of two. Reports say she had been in Miami since December 4, visiting relatives. Her young son and daughter remained in Nicaragua.

A fundraising page created in her name describes a physician devoted to medicine and to her children, noting that she earned recognition for work involving congenital heart disease and that her care “brought hope and healing” to children and their families. The fundraiser was set up to help with repatriation costs and funeral arrangements in Nicaragua.

Questions that still hang over the case

As investigators wait for autopsy results, the family and public are left with a set of troubling unknowns:

• Access: How did Sanchez reach an employee-only area, and was the restricted space secured as usual?
• Entrapment: Was the freezer door operating correctly — and if she became trapped, what prevented her from getting out or being heard?
• Medical factors: Were there any underlying health or situational factors that contributed to her entering the freezer in the first place?

Some commentators have pointed to rare physiological responses in extreme cold, including confusion and, in certain hypothermia cases, paradoxical undressing. But without the medical examiner’s report, these remain speculation — and the family says speculation cannot substitute for answers.

Dollar Tree response

Dollar Tree has issued a brief statement expressing condolences and saying it is cooperating with authorities. The company has not publicly addressed operational questions about restricted-area access or freezer safety while the investigation is ongoing.

For Sanchez’s relatives, the wait is now measured in days and phone calls — and in the distance between Miami and Nicaragua, where her children remain. Until the official findings arrive, the family says they are left with grief and a single insistence: they want to know what happened.