Authorities in Florida have charged a woman with failing to report her mother’s death more than two months after the nonagenarian’s body was found in a freezer in the home they shared.
The 64-year-old woman was arrested Thursday and is also accused of tampering with evidence. Her 93-year-old mother’s body was found after a welfare check was conducted in late April, according to the Sebastian Police Department’s Facebook page. The daughter told investigators that she bought the freezer and put her mother’s body in it in order to continue receiving disability payments.
The department said an inquest showed the woman died of natural causes and was dead for two weeks before her body was put in the freezer. Investigators searching the property found a stained mattress hidden in thick brush and covered with severed palm fronds, according to police.
The woman is being held in the Indian River County Jail on $10,000 bond. Online jail records do not indicate that she has an attorney.