Status: True
Big Gary forwarded me
this urban-legendesque story about the mummified body of Johannas Pope, who was "found in a chair in front of her television set 2 1/2 years after her death." Apparently she had been left there by her family, who were honoring her wish that she not be buried. They had kept the air conditioner running on full blast, thereby slowing the process of decay. Must have had a huge electricity bill.
Coincidentally, also in the news is
the story of Mirko Sartori, who kept the mummified body of his mother sealed up in his bedroom wardrobe so that he could keep receiving her pension check. He evidently was a bad son, since he didn't let her watch TV.
Update: The story of Johannas Pope
gets even weirder. Apparently she didn't want to be buried because she believed she was going to come back to life. And apparently her family agreed with her, because they honored her wish, to the extent of engaging in an elaborate deception for 2 1/2 years to prevent people from finding out there was a dead body upstairs in their house:
"Friends and relatives who visited were told Pope was upstairs, ill, Owens [the county coroner] said. Some yelled "hello" up the stairs."
Comments
I'm thinking maybe they say they thought she'd come back to life as a defense against possible prosecution for fraud.
A link to a Turkish newspaper article. A man, when she died, buried his mother's body in his house, and disguised to be able to continue to get her retirement salary. This is gone on for two years, and then this has been discovered as he forgot to change his voice at his last trial at the bank...