Man mummifies mother's corpse to gain access to her pension for 3 years

October 29, 2015 10:25 PM

Leonidov mummified his mother's body using salt, pretending that she was still alive so he could claim her pension every month.

Vladimir Leonidov

A 60-year-old man been arrested for hiding his late mother's body, to enable him gain access to her pension, for 3 years.

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Vladimir Leonidov, a sex shop worker, did not inform the local authorities or his family about his mother's death and continued to pocket her monthly 16,000 Roubles (£160) pension for three years.

Daily Mail reports that he tricked his neighbours into believing she was alive by making a dummy and sitting it on a balcony dressed in his late mother's clothes.

His plot was finally uncovered when people started complaining to police about the terrible stench coming from his flat.

After investigating, Leonidov's mother's decomposing body was found.

The scandal happened shortly after he moved from St Petersburg to Yessentuki, in Stavropol Krai, south west Russia, to take care of his mother.

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After she died, he looked up ways to mummify bodies on internet and decided to keep her body in the apartment and continued to keep her death a secret.