Missing 70-Year-Old Woman Found Entombed In Concrete; Caretaker Found Hospitalized

The remains of a 70-year-old woman in Avery County, North Carolina, who was missing for nearly two months were found entombed in concrete in the basement of her home, officials announced.

The elderly woman's caretaker, who was deemed as a person of interest, has been found in the hospital with a drug issue, WBTV reported.

The Avery County Sheriff’s Office filed a missing person's report on July 30 for the deceased, identified as Lynn Keene. She was reported missing by her family, who last spoke to her on June 14, WSOC-TV reported.

Detectives initially went to check Keene’s home in Linville Falls and found it was secured. The investigation found that her 2000 Lincoln town car was missing, and both the woman and the vehicle were entered into the North Carolina database.

On Monday, Cherokee Police Department officers reported to the Avery County Sheriff’s Office that Keene's vehicle had been found abandoned on Blue Wing Road in Cherokee, North Carolina, which is around 100 miles away from the victim's home.

Police said the car had been locked and that the keys to the vehicle were found under the driver’s seat. Detectives also discovered two empty bags of a concrete mixture in the trunk of the car, WBTV reported.

Police secured a search warrant for Keene’s home. With the help of the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI), they checked the basement and found human remains entombed in concrete.

An autopsy was conducted on the remains, and dental records showed that they were of Keene. The autopsy also revealed that Keene did not die of natural causes and that the elderly woman's cause of death was homicide.

“She had blunt force trauma to the head as well as strangulation by ligature, it was a belt,” Detective Tim Austin stated, as per WBTV.

Shortly after, Keene's live-in caretaker, 53-year-old Elizabeth Freeman, was named a person of interest by the sheriff’s office and SBI. The Keene family had hired Freeman to take care of the elderly woman.

Acquired surveillance footage from a store in Marion showed Freeman driving Keene’s car and using one of her bank cards.

She was found Friday night in a hospital in North Carolina with a drug issue.

Freeman faces charges of larceny of a motor vehicle, financial card theft and identity theft.

Police suspect that at least one other person may have been involved in Keene's death.

"In my 16 years in law enforcement, I’ve never seen anything like this," Austin said.