Horror in Austria: Man mummified his 89-year-old mother to continue receiving state aid

The body of an old woman who has been dead for over a year and mummified in a basement by her son, who wanted to continue receiving social benefits from her, was discovered in Tyrol, Austrian police said Thursday.

“Investigations revealed that this 89-year-old woman died in June 2020 and the 66-year-old man kept her body to continue receiving aid.”, the security forces said in a statement.

The suspect, who lived with his mother near Innsbruck (Austria), admitted during his arrest that he froze the body to make sure it wouldn’t smell the dead man, then soaked up the bodily fluids with bandages.

“Then he covered the body with kitty litter and finally the corpse was mummified”, detailed on public television ORF Agent Helmut Cufler, head of the police unit specializing in social benefit fraud.

When her brother came home and asked about her mother, who suffered from dementia before her death and had few people except her children, the suspect replied that she had been admitted to a hospital.

Help was received by postal check and when a new letter carrier asked to see the recipient, her son refused. This made him suspect and he reported the facts. They finally found the mummy last Saturday.

The police charge the suspect with a crime of state aid fraud and concealment of a corpse.

With information from AFP

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