Woman stores dead husband in freezer

CARLSBAD, N.M. (KRQE) - The body found in a Carlsbad freezer may be a man put there by his wife so she could keep collecting his pension.

On Monday, the children of Barbara Sharpe found the body in her bedroom as they cleaned out her mobile home where she died in November 2010.

Detectives said a nurse who cared for her has come forward. She said Sharpe told her that she stored her husband's body in the freezer and left a letter explaining why. Investigators said in the letter, Sharpe said the body is her husband, James, who disappeared 1997. She claimed he died of natural causes but she didn't report it because she needed his pension money.

State medical investigators are working to confirm the identity of the frozen corpse and the cause of death. Sources said James Sharpe may have been a retired Pennsylvania police officer.