Woman hid 93-year-old mom’s body in freezer to get disability benefits, Florida cops say
A Florida woman is accused of hiding her 93-year-old mother’s body in a freezer to keep getting disability benefits.
The mom had been dead for about two weeks before the daughter put her remains in a deep freezer, according to the Sebastian Police Department.
Now, more than two months after officials reported finding the missing woman’s body, they obtained an arrest warrant for her daughter. She is accused of tampering with evidence and failing to report her mother’s death.
The case stems to April 28, when Sebastian police conducted a welfare check on a 93-year-old woman. At the time, neighbors said they were worried that they hadn’t seen her.
Officers went to a home roughly 95 miles southeast of Orlando, where a family member told them it had been a while since she last saw the missing woman. Police then discovered the 93-year-old’s body in a chest freezer inside the garage, officials said.
Officers said the daughter had found her mom dead from natural causes and bought the freezer “to conceal her mother’s death for the concern she would not be able to receive her disability benefits,” police wrote Friday, July 8, in a Facebook post.
In addition to finding the mom’s body, investigators said a “heavily soiled bed mattress was located concealed in thick brush and covered by cut palm tree branches in the backyard.”
The 64-year-old daughter was taken to the Indian River County Jail and given a $10,000 bond, officials said.
This story was originally published July 11, 2022 at 10:51 AM with the headline "Woman hid 93-year-old mom’s body in freezer to get disability benefits, Florida cops say."
