Italian son seals mother's body in wardrobe

ROME - An Italian man "mummified" the body of his 71-year-old mother when she died, stashing it away in the bedroom wardrobe three years ago and sealing it with silicone gel.

The grisly secret was kept until this week, when the landlord stumbled upon the "house of horrors" during a routine check of the rented property near the north Italian town of Aqui Terme.

He first found the body of the 35-year-old son, Mirko Sartori, who police said was killed while working on his car.

"He (Sartori) wrote a note: 'Mother forgive me'," the wife of the landlord, who asked not to be identified, said.

"They went looking for the mother, and found her in the wardrobe." Police suspect the son hid the body of his mother, Anna Pelloni, so that he could continue receiving her pension cheque of about €900 ($1567.54) per month.

A preliminary autopsy placed the mother's death around the end of 2002. Her body was fairly well preserved inside the airtight cupboard.

"It was like she was mummified," said one police official, who asked not to be named.

- REUTERS