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(CNN) -
Austrian police have found the body of a woman who they say was mummified by her son so she could continue to claim her social security.
The 66-year-old man confessed to keeping his mother's body in the basement of a property in the Innsbruck-Land region of western Austria after police officers visited the home on Saturday, according to a police statement sent. to CNN on Friday.
The 89-year-old woman is believed to have died in June 2020, police said, but the man kept her body to continue receiving his pension and care allowance.
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Police said the man raised about € 50,000 (US $ 59,000) during the time he kept his mother's body in the basement.
An autopsy on Wednesday did not reveal any indication that the woman's death was suspicious, the statement continued.
The man is charged with fraud of benefits and concealing a corpse.
The man said he froze his mother's body using ice packs to avoid any odors and wrapped her in bandages to absorb body fluids, the AFP news agency reported.
"He covered his mother with cat litter and finally the body was mummified," Helmut Gufler, head of the police's social security fraud unit, said in an interview with public broadcaster ORF, according to AFP.
When the man's brother came to see his mother, he would tell her that he was in the hospital.
It was only when a new postman asked to see the recipient of the benefits he was providing that the story began to unravel, the agency said.
The postman reported that the man had refused to let him see the mother, according to AFP, and authorities went to search the property.
Crime