By Abimbola Ogunnaike
A man has told police he stored the corpse of his 101-year-old father so he could still talk to him after officers in Netherlands discovered the body in his freezer.
Police said the body had been in cold storage since the man’s death 18 months ago.
De Limburger reported the dead man’s doctor had raised concerns about his missing patient, alerting police who later found the body at the home in Landgraaf which he shared with his son, 82.
While the son is being investigated for hiding his father’s body, police said they do not suspect foul play was involved and have not made an arrest.
The son, who has not been named, explained his actions, saying: ‘I didn’t want to lose him. Otherwise, I would miss him.’
Investigators are still trying to understand how and when the father would have died.
The exact time of death will be important in establishing any scope for fraud.
The octogenarian told 1Limburg that his father had died a year and a half prior of natural causes.
The family doctor confirmed he had not heard from his patient for ‘months’ and thought it suspicious before contacting the police.
Officials visited the house again on Monday afternoon, claiming the house was a ‘mess’ and giving the son a week to tidy up before assessing whether he can carry on living independently.
In February police in Poland found an elderly man named only as Marian L living with his deceased and mummified mother, who he had dug up from her grave and positioned on the living room sofa for 13 years.
For more than a decade, he would allegedly sit talking to the body at their house in the small town of Radlin, southwest Poland.
The corpse was found when the 76-year-old’s estranged brother-in-law decided to visit the home.
Police determined that ‘It is likely that the man dug up the mother’s body immediately after its burial and then mummified it and the body has remained in this house since 2010.’
The body was apparently in ‘perfect condition’ regardless. His mother was to be reburied.
Police said Marian L had been charged with desecrating a corpse.
