Sebastian woman, 93, died from heart disease. Daughter hid body to collect benefits, police say

SEBASTIAN — The day after a 93-year-old Sebastian woman's body was discovered in a freezer in her garage in April, her daughter told police she wanted her death kept secret to continue receiving her mother's Social Security benefit payments.

Indian River County sheriff's deputies arrested Michelle Renee Sandrea Hoskins, 64, late Thursday afternoon at her mother’s home, 107 Paddock St., on a warrant signed by a judge the same day.

She's charged with failing to report a death and tampering with or destroying evidence. She's in jail on $10,000 bail following a first appearance in court Friday.

Police and court records show two different spellings of Michelle Hoskins' name, which court records show was changed from Michele Rene Sandre in 2021.

The charges and evidence to arrest Hoskins came from interviews with Hoskins April 28, the day her mother Marie Hoskins' body was found in a black chest freezer along the south wall of her garage, and a warrant search of the home the next day.

A medical examiner determined Hoskins died from heart disease and found only “acceptable amounts of acetaminophen and caffeine” in her body through toxicology screenings.

“(Michelle Hoskins) found her mother deceased in her bed and decided not to contact authorities so that she could continue to receive Social Security disability benefits that she would not be afforded if it was known that her mother was deceased,” stated Detective Kenneth McDonough.

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Police first went to the Paddock Street home April 27 after “multiple calls were received from concerned neighbors” requesting police conduct a welfare check for Hoskins at the residence.

Michelle Hoskins told police that day Marie Hoskins was not home because she was at a doctor’s appointment. Detectives state in their report that Michelle Hoskins could not give the name of the doctor she was seeing or how she got there.

The next day police entered the home based on a “well-founded fear (she) may be in harm’s way” based on Michelle Hoskins’ statements and phone calls made with concerned family members.

During their first search of the home police found Hoskins' body in the freezer, but did not tell Michelle Hoskins of the discovery and requested she come to the department for an interview, to which she agreed, according to the report.

McDonough states during questioning, Michelle Hoskins “was unaware that police had found the body of her mother inside the freezer” and that they already knew Marie Hoskins was dead.

Michelle Hoskins first told detectives she thought her mother was at another doctor’s appointment that day and hadn’t seen her since the night of April 27.

Questioned further, she told them she found Marie Hoskins dead in her bed and she used a deep freezer bought online from Walmart to store her body.

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Although detectives reported Michelle Hoskins told them she couldn’t remember the exact day she found Hoskins’ body, the freezer was bought online April 21 with Marie Hoskins’ credit card and shipped to the home.

Michelle Hoskins told detectives “it took (her) … three to five days to get her mother’s body to the freezer in the garage” and that she hid the “soiled mattress” behind trees in the backyard, according to the report.

Detectives found the mattress and other evidence of decomposition in the room where Michelle Hoskins told them Marie Hoskins died roughly two weeks before being put in the freezer.

Who was Marie Hoskins?

In the days after the discovery of her body, Marie Hoskins' stepson Michael Vannoy spoke with TCPalm about the woman he said he called "Mom."

Hoskins was married to professional jazz saxophonist George Vannoy, who died at 86 in 2019.

They owned the Sebastian home since 2006, according to tax records.

Michael Vannoy, 59, said his father met his stepmother in the mid-90s while Hoskins lived in Cocoa Beach and George Vannoy had a home in Vero Beach.

“I was very close with her ... I called her Mom,” Vannoy said. “She was very high class, very worldly and educated."

He said Hoskins worked for most of her career at the NASA Space Center and in her retirement for Disney cruise line.

Vannoy said about two months after his father’s death, Hoskins’ adult child moved into the home “and slammed the door on everybody.”

Also shut off, he said, were longtime family friends who acted as her caretakers checking in on Hoskins, “three to four times a week.”

Until his calls began going unanswered, Vannoy said he would speak with Hoskins at least once a month by phone and last saw her about two years ago, shortly after his father’s death.

Vannoy, an engineer in New River, Arizona, said he told police where to find the key they used to enter the home April 28.

"Something told me to bury a key outside that house," Vannoy said. "I just had a funny feeling … there needed to be a key hidden out there and I buried a key in the yard.”

Vannoy said he lost contact with Hoskins about six months ago.

Until last year, he said she drove a new car she bought, and “always had her hair done once a week.”

Corey Arwood is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Follow Corey on Twitter @coreyarwood, or reach him by phone at 772-978-2246.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Sebastian woman hid body of mother in freezer for her Social Security