Police in Kobe said Friday they have arrested a 61-year-old man after they discovered the mummified remains of his 91-year-old mother at their home in Nishi Ward.
According to police, a neighbor contacted authorities to say that neither the woman or her son had been seen in quite awhile. Firefighters entered the house just before 3 p.m. on Wednesday and found the woman's body naturally mummified, lying on her bed, covered by a duvet, Sankei Shimbun reported.
The woman's son, Katsumi Fujimoto, 61, was not at home at the time of the discovery. Police spotted him walking down a nearby street later that evening and took him in for questioning. The man told officers that his mother had passed away in January.
© Japan Today
18 Comments
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Mirai Hayashi
Either he had a hard time dealing with her death, or he is collecting her pension...is my guess
Kapuna
How do you live with the stench of a decomposing body????
smithinjapan
Mummifed after three months and only covered by a duvet? Wouldn't she just be rotting and not mummified? Anyway, unless he killed her, why on earth not call authorities to recover the body?
cleo
The air is always dry during the cold months, and this year the dry-air warnings have been being issued until quite late. Being a very old lady she was probably quite dehydrated anyway, and after death her body simply desiccated.
Allison Honig
Honestly. Ew.
nath
definitely had a hard time dealing with her death. Specially if he had been living with her his whole life.
Yubaru
Maybe he couldn't afford the costs of a funeral?
tmarie
Yubaru, doubt that was the issue. More like this greedy monster wanted mummy's money - sorry, couldn't help it. Like I have said before, you want your pension? Get your butt to city hall once a year (every six months?) or arrange for someone to come and verify you are alive. No verification? No pension.
jessebaybay
This is so bizarre. Like something out of a movie. There sure are some super strange people in this world.
Kokuzi
Something out of a movie based on a book, probably "Mummy, Dearest." But not about Joan Crawford this time...
Alistair Carnell
Norman Bates, much ?
DentShop
"This looks like the work of the Ancient Egyptian mafia," quoted Kobe police.
Tuntematon Sotilas
This is pretty sick, he was clearly using her to get her pension.
waltery
Mumy Mummie, (some/a lot of/ many )Japanese men seem a bit to attached to their mums. this reinforces " I can't live with out my mumy"
JoshuYaki
I wonder, morbidly what the pro's and con's are to actually planning a responsible but impossible financially sound retirement VS. keeping a petrified parent.
I would have bought some sort of tupperware box and a ventilation fan.
Dennis Bauer
Japanese burials are not cheap, maybe he didn't had or wanted to pay the money?
ebisen
cleo - you might be right.. Plus all the artificial preservatives in our food might have helped the process.
602miko
january? ewwwwww, can't imagine?