Greek police have arrested a man suspected of keeping his father’s body for several years in a freezer in the basement of a disused hotel at one of the country’s top mediaeval sites to continue drawing his pension, state ERT television reported Tuesday.
There were no immediate indications that the 90-year-old retired teacher had died of anything but natural causes. Local media said his 55-year-old son was suspected of having concealed the fact of his father’s death to continue receiving his pension.
ERT said police took a hand after concerned neighbors of the elderly man from the village of Mystras, beside the walled mediaeval city of the same name near Sparta in the southern Peloponnese, notified authorities that he had not shown signs of life for several years.
ERT said the suspect told police his father had died of natural causes about two and a half years ago, and he had placed the body in the freezer – where it was found in a frozen state. Local residents said they hadn’t seen the retiree for at least four years.
A coroner is due to examine the corpse.
