On Friday (13 January), an arrest warrant was issued for a 47-year-old woman in Incheon, South Korea for failing to register her mother's death for more than two years, allowing her mother's body to remain in the house where they had lived together in order to collect her social security benefits.
According to Nation Thailand, police are seeking charges of concealing and possessing a corpse, a crime punishable by up to seven years in prison in South Korea.
Photo via Inquirer.net
The welfare authorities had become suspicious "because the mother had no medical records over the past two years" while receiving pension benefits, according to a National Pension Service spokesperson on Sunday (15 January).
In addition, the authorities will "try to obtain back the wrong pension payment, maybe through asset seizures, depending on the outcomes of the police investigation," the spokesperson said.
The woman is charged with keeping her mother's skeletal remains covered with a blanket at her home in a low-rise apartment complex in Incheon.
Based on the woman's statement, who revealed that her mother passed away at the age of 76 in August 2020, it is assumed that the mother has been deceased for more than two years.
The daughter allegedly got as much as 17 million won (RM 59,367) in total over the previous two years and four months, or approximately 600,000 won (RM 2,095) per month, from her mother's pension.
An autopsy report ruled out foul play but added that it could not determine the cause of death of the mother.
