An Austrian man has admitted to keeping his mother's mummified corpse for over a year to continue to receive pension payments.
Local police said on Thursday they had discovered the body of the 89-year-old woman in a home located near Innsbruck, in Austria.
The body was placed in a refrigerator with ice packs that were regularly swapped while body fluids were absorbed with bandages, according to the BBC.
The woman reportedly had dementia and is believed to have died from natural causes in June 2020.
Austrian police believe the 66-year-old man has received about €50,000 (NZ$83,000) in illegal payments.
The mother was only found when a new mailman requested to see the 89-year-old but was refused, which sparked an investigation, police said in a statement.
Police told Austria's public broadcaster ORF that the suspect had also covered his mother with cat litter.
"Ultimately, the corpse was mummified," officer Helmuth Gufler said, adding that the man had confessed.
The man was unemployed and had no other income so if he reported his mother's death, the payments would've stopped immediately, leaving him with no way to pay for the funeral or the house they shared.
An autopsy has ruled out the possibility that he may have murdered his mother but he is accused of benefit fraud and hiding a corpse.
