Son pretends to be dad while talking to deputy – then grim secret found, Texas cops say

A family worried after not hearing from their father for months found him dead inside a refrigerator “strapped shut” in the garage of a Texas home, officials said.

The man’s family recently contacted the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office to share their concerns, which ultimately led to the grim discovery, Sheriff Javier Salazar said in an Aug. 9 news briefing shared on Facebook.

The sheriff’s office has not publicly identified the man but said he was 76 years old, the San Antonio News-Express reported.

A deputy went to the home on San Antonio’s far northeastern side to carry out a welfare check, Salazar said. When they arrived, a man began speaking to them through a Ring doorbell camera.

“Somebody answered as if it was (the father), but the deputy got the sense that it was not him,” Salazar said. The deputy’s suspicion was right — somebody inside the home had pretended to be the father.

At some point, the man’s family arrived at the house and were able to get inside, Salazar said, adding that a 48-year-old man suddenly exited the address. It was the man’s son, David Michael Gibson.

The family and the deputy were searching the home together when they came upon a “suspicious” refrigerator in the garage, Salazar said.

“It appeared that it had been chained shut or strapped shut with some straps,” he said. They got the fridge open and found human remains inside.

Gibson was arrested on a charge of tampering with a corpse, according to the sheriff’s office. There could be more charges to come, but for now, “it’s too early to tell if the victim was actually murdered,” Salazar said. “But … we have a badly decomposed body that’s been there for some time.”

Investigators believe Gibson was living at the home with the remains.

Salazar said Gibson may have been cashing checks using his father’s name, KENS reported, adding that his bond has been set at $250,000.

Salazar also said the man’s Social Security and military pension checks were being cashed but that a prescription he takes had not been filled recently, WOAI reported.

This story was originally published August 11, 2024 at 5:04 PM with the headline "Son pretends to be dad while talking to deputy – then grim secret found, Texas cops say."