Swedish authorities announced on Tuesday the arrest of a septuagenarian, suspected of having locked up her son for 28 years.
"The mother is suspected of unlawful deprivation of liberty and of causing physical injury," police spokesman Ola Österling said,
The 41-year-old son was discovered according to multiple media reports in their apartment in Haninge, a suburb of Stockholm, with infected wounds, malnourished and having lost almost all of his teeth.
He could barely walk and speak.
According to the Expressen and Aftonbladet dailies, his mother took him away from school when he was 12 years old.
"The alert was given by a member of the family after seeing the son," the prosecution confirmed in a statement.
A relative "shocked, disgusted" and also "relieved"
Police did not confirm these details, but said the son had been hospitalized.
“There was urine, dirt and dust.
It smelled musty […] No one has been able to clean in years, ”according to the family member who discovered it, quoted anonymously by Expressen.
Lots of rubbish barely made it possible to sneak into the apartment, she said.
“I am shocked, disgusted, but at the same time relieved.
I have waited for this day for 20 years because I understood that she was in complete control of her life, but I never imagined this magnitude, ”said this relative.
A neighbor who worked in the grocery store told Aftonbladet that he always saw the mother alone.