Son Kept Mother's Mummified Corpse In His Basement To Collect Her Pension

Authorities in Austria said that a 66-year-old man kept his mother's body in his basement for more than a year so he could continue to collect her pension benefits.

An investigation was launched after the postman became suspicious when he was refused a request to see the 89-year-old woman.

Detectives were sent to the man's home, and he admitted that he never reported her death. He told them that he used ice packs to freeze her body and then wrapped it with bandages.

"He covered his mother with cat litter, and finally the corpse was mummified," Helmut Gufler, in charge of the police's social security fraud unit, said, according to The Guardian.

When his brother asked about their mother, he was told that she was in the hospital with dementia. The suspect told his brother that she was in bad shape and that it wasn't worth visiting her because she wouldn't remember him.

Officials said the man collected nearly $60,000 in improper benefits. He explained that he had no source of income and needed the money to pay for her funeral and keep the house they shared.

The man was taken into custody and facing charges of hiding a corpse and benefit fraud.