A woman lived in the same home with her mother's rotting corpse for months and collected her Social Security checks: police
Kimberly Heller, 54, is accused by the authorities of keeping her mother's corpse at home since May.
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- A woman in New Hampshire is being accused of keeping her mother's corpse in her home for months.
- Local police allege that Kimberly Heller failed to report her mother's death in May.
- Heller is also accused of pocketing the dead woman's Social Security checks, per authorities.
Authorities accused a woman in New Hampshire of hiding her mother's rotting corpse at home and living with the body for months, all while pocketing the dead woman's Social Security checks.
Kimberly Heller, 54, was arrested last month and charged with abusing a corpse, per a news release from the Bedford Police Department.
The police said they were alerted to Heller's mother's disappearance after a family member requested a wellness check after not seeing the older woman for several months. Heller refused to allow the police to enter the home when they visited on October 25, per the news release. However, officers returned with a search warrant later that day and found the older woman's body.
Heller was arrested on November 18, per the news release.
"Additionally, Bedford Police have contacted the federal Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General, and are coordinating with the Inspector General's investigation as the investigation indicated that Heller's mother's Social Security payments were still being deposited into her bank account in the months following her death," the news release said.
Police say their investigation revealed that Heller's mother died in May, days before Memorial Day. The state medical examiner in New Hampshire has conducted an autopsy and determined that the older woman died of natural causes, per the police.
It is unclear how much money in Social Security checks Heller is alleged to have pocketed. The Bedford Police Department did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Heller is due in court for her arraignment on January 6, 2022.
This is not the only recent case of a family member keeping their dead parent's body at home for months. In September, an Austrian man was arrested for mummifying his mother and keeping her body preserved in the basement via an assortment of ice packs and bandages. The local authorities alleged that the man, 66, continued to collect his 89-year-old mother's pension and welfare benefits for more than a year.