It was the dark hair on the back of the elderly woman’s head, hands and beard that alerted authorities to a suspected crime and led to the arrest of a 57-year-old man in northern Italy.
The man, whose name has not been released by authorities, is the son of Graziella Dall’Oglio, who died in 2022 at the age of 82 in the town of Borgo Virgilio, near the city of Mantua, a spokesman for the Mantua police department told CNN on Tuesday.
Police said the man, a former nurse who is currently unemployed, did not report his mother’s death to authorities.
When the elderly woman’s ID card expired, the boy put on makeup, a wig, and her clothes in order to pose as his mother and extend the validity of her card — something that must be done in person in Italy.
However, the agent who processed the application suspected foul play and notified the authorities, who called Dall’Oglio to report to the municipal office.
Parking lot security camera footage showed the man driving to the office dressed as his mother, despite the fact that she did not have a driver’s license.
After the incident, officers went to the elderly woman’s home address and found her mummified body in a laundry closet, wrapped in bags.
The man is now charged with concealing a corpse, fraud against the state, impersonation and forgery of a public document, according to authorities.
He is accused of removing fluids from his mother’s body with a syringe to prevent decomposition, while an autopsy has been ordered to determine how she died.
He remains in a local jail while prosecutors await autopsy results, a police spokesman told CNN.
State pension fraud is common in Italy, with dozens of people arrested each year for impersonating someone who has died to claim their pension, according to statistics from Italy’s financial crime police, known as the Guardia di Finanza.
Because the country’s death registers and public services are not always in sync, it can take years for deaths to be reported, meaning pension checks continue to be sent until someone notifies the local pension office from which they are sent.