10th September, 2021
A man has been arrested in the Tyrol region of Austria after he kept the mummified corpse of his mum in a basement for over a year so he could continue to collect her pension payments.
The police found he had collected over €50,000.
The 89-year old woman was believed to have died of natural causes in June 2020 after suffering from dementia for several years.
But instead of the son to give the mum a befitting burial and also notify the authorities, he came with the gruesomely ingenious plan to rake in extra cash over his mum’s body.
According to Mail Online, police investigators believe the 66 year-old son dragged the mum’s body into their shared basement before mummifying her entire body in bandages and covering her in ice packs so as to reduce the smell of rotting flesh.
The mother and son, both of whom are yet to be named, lived in the western Tyrol region of Austria near Innsbruck, where police made the discovery last weekend after being led to the house by a suspicious postman.
Police believe he managed to rack up approximately €50,000 (£42,000) in pension and benefit payments destined for his mother who lay rotting in the basement.
The haunting fraud operation only came to light after a new postman delivering the woman’s social welfare mail said her son refused to let him meet his mother.
The postman reportedly reported his suspicions to the authorities who launched an investigation into the woman’s apparent disappearance and discovered her rotted carcass in her son’s basement.
Ultimately, the corpse was mummified,’ said Helmut Gufler, head of the police’s social security fraud unit in an interview with public broadcaster ORF.
‘He made sure that there was no odour or nuisance.’