Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised .
november 5th 2022
it was a chilly morning when police received a call that would change everything…
a concerned caller reported that they hadn’t heard from monique gilbertson in 2 weeks, last time anyone had spoken to her was on october 22nd.
for most people a couple of weeks without contact might seem like nothing to worry about
a 68 year old woman living alone,the silence was deafening,was she sick? had something happened to her ? no one knew.
but they were about to find out…
officers arrived at 5500 tres pedus road in las vegas and that’s when they encountered daniel roush a v37 year old man nevada resident also known by the name jazlyne roush. roush ‘s background paints the picture of a transient lifestyle who would later become the central figure in one of the most disturbing murder investigations in recent memory.
roush who had been living in gilbertson’s home since september greeted the officers with an air of defensiveness.
he insisted that gilbertson was not home in fact he told them repeatedly.
his demeanor seemed off but nothing yet suggested the chilling truth that was about to be uncovered.
the body cam footage from one of the responding officers painmts a surreal scene,roush almost nonchalantly tells the officers that he’s been renting the property.
the police are skeptical and one officer notes that there is something strange about the situation but roush insists that everything is fine.
but then things start to esacalet, roush tells officers that he has paperwork to prove that he’s allowed to be there.
but when asked where gilbertson was his answers remained vague.
he says that she asked him to house sit,yet the officers can’t shake the feeling that something was deeply wong.
they press further and the situation grows tenser by the second.
for 15 minutes roush delays the officers and then finally after what seems like an eternity he agrees to let them inside.
the officers begin their search, they move through the house but the tension is palpable.
the air feels heavy as though the house itself it’s holding breath.
in the bathroom the officer’s check behind the shower curtain asnd under the sink,personal items like toothpaste and shampoo are there but the bathroom feels unused.
the towels are folded neatly and the mirror shows no recent signs of steam or fingerprints.
the officer then proceed to the bedroom the bed is unmade with clothes scattered across the floor as if someone had left in a hurry.
the officers checked the closets,under the bed and even inside the dresser drawers.
again , nothing.but something feels off, there’s no sign of monique, no indication she had living her normal routin.
just as the officers begin to feel like they’ve exhausted all their options one of them notices something odd in the utility room , a large locked freezer tucked into the corner partially hidden under a thin cloth and some old household items.
the camera focuses on the freezer, the thin cloth covering it flutters slightly from the draft as they approach revealing more of its surface.
it’s an old bulky model the kind that doesn’t belong in a utility .
the officers exchange glances ,this is it ,the moment where the atmospher shifts from uneasy to downright chilling.
a locksmith is called in to open the freezer and what happens next is enough to make anyone question the humanity of those invlved.
when the freezer is finally unlocked an officer removes a tarp underneath they find monique gilbertson’s lifeless body ,folded up stuffed into the freezer like she was nothing more than discarded refuse.
the body frozen solid had clearly been there for some time.
the officers are stunned but the case has only just begun,they continue to search the house returning to the freezer area multiple times.
what started as a wellness check has now become a homicide investigation.
the scene is gruesome and the officers are no longer working under the assumption that they’re dealing with a simple missing person.
this is something much darker and as the investigation progresses the pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place.
roush’s story begins to unravel under the weight of the evidence,initially he claims that he found gilbertson’s body in the home. but when pressed his statements grow increasingly inconsistent.
but as investigators dig deeper the truth begins to surface.
it turns out that monique gilbertson had becoming increasingly uncomfortable with roush’s presence in her home.
the messages she sent him in october are heart-wrenching,she had asked him to leave and in fact she had changed the locks on october 22nd.
but roush didn’t go quietly ,instead it seems he stayed put , plotting his next move.
gilbertson had offered roush a place to stay temporarily, but as month went on their relationship soured, she had given him enough chances.now she wanted him gone.
however, roush wasn’t done with her,police later learned that roush’s wife gina lopez played a part in what happened to monique.
lopez allegedly supplied roush with fentanyl which was used to cause gilbertson’s overdose.
gilbertson had 400 nanograms of fentanyl in her system 200 times the lethal dose.
investigators believe that she died around october 22, the same day she had kicked roush out of her home.
but it didn’t stop there ,instead of calling the authorities,roush chose to hide her body.he shoved her into the freezer concealing her from the world.
for more than a week gilbertson’s body was trapped frozen in time.
now as roush and lopez face charges the question remains, why would they do something so horrific, what drove them to kill an innocent women one who had shown kindness and offered a place to stay.
the case becomes even more twisted as investigators dig into roush’s past ,they learn that he and gilbertson met at a store just months earlier and she had offered him a place to live out of the goodness of her heart.
but in the end roush repaid that kindness with something far more sinister as the investigation unfolds, the details gte darker.
the final chilling revelation , he didn’t know what to do with the body after he killed gilbertson so he simply put her in the icebox.
prosecutors have announced that they are reviewing the case for the death penalty and the legal battle has only just begun,meanwhile the police officers involved in the welfare check are still haunted by the discovery thay made that fateful day.
it was a scene straight out of a nightmare a freezer filled with a life that had been cruly snuffed out hidden away for far to long.
the investigation continues and the community remains in shock