Store video might have saved missing shopper’s life, her family says in lawsuit

A Dollar Tree manager prevented the viewing of a surveillance video that might have led to the rescue of a missing shopper from the  freezer where she died, the woman’s family says.

The wrongful-death suit filed on Jan. 28 accuses the manager and the retail chain of actions that contributed to the death of Helen Massiell Garay Sanchez in the store’s walk-in freezer.

Garay Sanchez, a 32-year-old physician and married mother of two, disappeared after going into the store in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood on the evening of Dec. 13, 2025. The following morning, an employee found her dead in the freezer.

The suit filed in Miami-Dade County by the woman’s father on behalf of the family says Dollar Tree and the manager were negligent in not preventing access to the freezer. It also alleges that the manager knew that a shopper was missing yet instructed an employee not to review the store’s video, as a customer had requested.

The suit requests a jury trial with damages possibly in excess of $50 million.

Police who reviewed store video said Garay Sanchez walked into the freezer of her own accord. The lawsuit contends she subsequently became trapped inside.

Her body was reportedly naked when discovered, possibly because of “paradoxical undressing,” a common phenomenon in fatal hypothermia cases.