He froze his mother's body and covered it with cat droppings to be embalmed for her pension

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A man hid his mother's body in the basement of his home for more than a year in order to continue to receive her pension and nursing allowance, Austrian police said, citing the Associated Press.

Police in the province of Tyrol said yesterday, Thursday, that officers visited the man in the Innsbruck region, last weekend, due to suspicions about the death of his mother, 89, in June 2020.

According to a statement, the 66-year-old confessed, in an interrogation, that he froze the body of his mother, who was living with her in the basement, to ensure that no smell was emitted from it, and wrapped it in bandages to absorb bodily fluids, so that he could obtain the social benefits allowances allocated to her.

Investigations so far indicate that he received a "five-figure" sum of euros.

The authorities conducted an autopsy on his mother's body, the first of Wednesday, and found no evidence of any crime.

Helmut Goeffler, in charge of the police unit in charge of social benefits fraud, told ORF that the man "covered his mother with a layer of cat litter, after which the body was embalmed."

And when the man's brother was asking him about their mother's situation, he was claiming that the old woman, who was suffering from dementia and her family's lack of awareness of her, was hospitalized.

A new postman who was delivering the monthly allowances asked to see the beneficiary of social benefits, but the son refused, so the courier only submitted a report on the matter.

The police discovered the body last Saturday.

The son was charged with welfare fraud and concealment of a dead body.

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