MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) - A construction crew working at a Medford home at first thought they were staring at a game animal when they opened a freezer. But it turned out to be a human corpse, wrapped in duct tape.
     
Police haven't yet identified the male body, or said how the person died.
     
But they've arrested 58-year-old Paul Henry Mahanna, who lives at the house. He was charged with abuse of a corpse and held on $500,000 bail.
     
"We may be adding some more charges against him," Medford police Lt. Tim George said. "We consider this a very suspicious death."
     
The body was taken to a State Police crime lab for an autopsy.
     
Mahanna has lived at the home with another man for a long time, George said. He would not comment on the other man's identity.
     
"As far as cases go, this certainly is a weird one," George said. "I don't think we've ever had a body in a freezer before."
     
A crew with RBS Home Restoration was called to the house two weeks ago to fix water damage caused by burst pipes. Crew members were working in the garage, where there was a 7-foot chest freezer, said Steve Hanlin, owner of the company.
     
Mahanna had told the workers not to remove the freezer, Hanlin told the Medford Mail-Tribune.
     
On Wednesday, the crew was nearly finished when a worker attempted to pry off a blanket that had frozen to the freezer lid. What he found inside sparked a brief debate, Hanlin said.
     
"At first we thought it might be a game animal," he said. "It was wrapped in so much duct tape that it looked like a mummy."
     
Soon they realized it was a human body. Hanlin gathered his crew, left the home without telling Mahanna and called the police.
     
Detectives arrived and questioned Mahanna before taking him into custody.
     
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)