Family members made a gruesome discovery while visiting a relative in the Allied Gardens neighborhood of San Diego, California, for the holidays (Picture:CBS 8 San Diego)

Out-of-town family members visiting a relative for the holidays were horrified to find a body stuffed in the freezer.

The family members called cops after making the gruesome discovery in a chest freezer shortly before noon on Friday.

Due to the level of decomposition of the body, it was not immediately clear if traumatic injuries were involved, said the San Diego Police Department.

Cops believe the victim was a woman, but an age or race could not be determined until the body is identified.

Residents of Allied Gardens expressed shock and concern after a body was found inside a home in their neighborhood (Picture: KGTV)

‘Detectives are continuing to gather information to understand what happened and why the body was inside the freezer,’ said cops, according to Scripps News.

The police department’s homicide unit is investigating the case because of the ‘unusual location’ of the body at the home on the 4900 block of Zion Avenue.

Residents at Allied Gardens, a neighborhood in the eastern Navajo community of San Diego, California, were in shock.

‘I started seeing the police everywhere, and I’m like “That is something big,”‘ Teresa Morrison told KGTV on Saturday.

Family members made the grisly discovery on Friday (Picture: CBS 8 San Diego)

‘This is a very safe area. We have a school across the street. We never heard about any violence or anything.’

Another neighbor, Ana Maria Mierau, said she goes for walks in the area and that learning of the discovery was ‘a little bit too much’.

‘It’s very surprising and scary and give me the chills because I’ve never heard something like this,’ Mierau told the TV station.

The body has been sent to a medical examiner to rule on the cause of death.

Neighbors said they were shocked that a body was found inside a freezer in the home (Picture: KGTV)

Family members and the relative living at the home were not identified.

Anyone with information on the crime is urged to contact the police department’s homicide unit.

It is the latest incident of a corpse found in a freezer in the US.

A year ago, family members found a man’s body in a freezer box in a home in South Philadelphia and the victim’s son was taken into custody. And in October 2022, a tenant was arrested after her landlord’s remains were discovered in a freezer inside the home she rented.

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A corpse believed to be a woman was found by family members visiting a relative in the Allied Gardens neighborhood of San Diego, California.