An Italian man has said he kept his dead mother’s remains in a freezer to cover up her death and continue to collect her pension.
Sandro Mallus told police he put the body of Rosanna Pilloni, 78, in the family’s chest freezer after she passed away at home in the small town of Sarroch, near Cagliari in Sardinia, in January last year.
He made the admission after police began investigating concerns from neighbours that the woman hadn’t been seen for months.
According to local media, Mr Mallus continued shopping as if he was buying for two people, maintaining the pretence that his mother was alive.
Police are due to carry out a post mortem examination on Monday and have not ruled out the possibility Pilloni was killed, something Mr Mallus denies.
“My mother died of natural causes,’’ Mr Mallus told the newspaper, L’Unione Sarda. “I would never have harmed her.
“When I discovered her body I was desperate. I had no money for the funeral, so I locked her in there.”
That’s fair. If I had kids I’d want them to do this to keep collecting the social security I’ll never collect.
We’ve been poor my whole life, and my mom is disabled. Our income consists of her disability and my paycheck, that I get from the state for being her caregiver. While I could never do this, she has literally asked me to do this out of concern for me should anything happen
What a ball grab my dude… What is the plan ?
I’m half way through a bachelor’s at 33, and we’re working on applying for a home loan through the USDA. But honestly, I can’t really bear to think about it. She’s my life. I don’t know that I’ll make it through that.
You will. I went through it with both parents. I burned my 20s looking after my dad until he passed just like you’re doing. Then burned the first half of my 30s looking after my mom.
Inb4 - My choice on both counts. And I don’t regret it. But because of it I sort of failed to launch. Never got a chance to be young. That part I do regret. Never went to college. Never dated. Don’t even make $15/hr now and I’m almost 40. Been on my own for about 4 years now. I’m keeping the bills paid. But that’s about it.
Said all that to say this, finish that Bachelor’s. Don’t you dare let anything get in the way of that. I’m only making it cuz I’m not opposed to eating ramen for years at a time. Bills eat up all the rest of my money. Economy is fucked beyond fucked. That degree may not help you much or it may be a godsend. But it’s far better to have that than just a HS diploma like I have.
I’m lucky, I have a decent social circle, and I see them just about as often as I want. I’m just so much of an introvert that I don’t often try to see anyone. I’ll finish the bachelor’s, and if I can do it, I’m going for an MFA after. My grades are amazing, so I’m pretty confident. The part that scares me is being without her, not the finances. I’ll live in a car if I need to, I’ve done it before. Work night shift security and park somewhere semi safe and I’ll be fine. But the idea of not having her is absolutely terrifying. My whole life she’s been my best friend, and it’s really scary to see her not able to get out of the bed now. I know people say their parents are their friends, but I mean it. We talk about everything, play games. Anything happens, she’s my first thought. Major Mama’s boy. Haha
I’m really sorry you’ve lost both your parents, and that it’s been a rough transition. If you don’t mind me asking, what kind of work do you do? If you’re in the US, security pays kinda shitty, but generally above minimum wage by quite a bit, and most sites are so easy you can do whatever you want at work, video games, movies, or even college classes if you’re so inclined. I wish I’d signed up for SNHU when I was still doing security, I’d have that MFA by now, but my dumbass never thought I was able to handle college until I bit the bullet during the pandemic.
Customer service.
Security is something I’ve been looking at. But I think I’m gonna go for electrician apprentice with a union.
That’s the gig, man. A buddy of went carpenters union and made freaking bank with no degree
This is sad, and poignant illustration of why we all need to implement some kind of universal basic income.
UbI is cheaper to administrate, it makes more pro-community roles like artist, scholar and teacher more likely to be filled by more people, it makes the work force who can work more agile in finding their best jobs, it creates leverage for collective action against the worst employers (forcing all employers to behave better!) and it discourages people from hiding dead family members in a freezer.
Whenever the topic of UBI comes up please always mention the pro of not hiding dead family members in the freezer. Its so specific yet sorta random haba
it makes more pro-community roles like artist, scholar and teacher more likely to be filled by more people
Considering conservatives tend to attack education, I’m starting to realize another proponent for their resistance of UBI.
Yep. I was confused for awhile about conservatives being against UBI, since it enables a lot of libertarian ideal outcomes.
I do think it’s because education would get better, and certain powerful people don’t want that.
I would not consider funeral costs as something to be entrusted to an income or to be solved by UBI. If the money comes in, it gets spent. That’s really the point, it’s basic, not pay for major life changes/events.
If you’re going to go down the route of paying for all of these things then we’re going to need to extend social programs to burial costs, cemetery or other costs of public access to the deceased’s location, etc.
This is just sad. Assuming he didn’t actually kill her, or cause her death via neglect, it’s fairly sympathetic.
Weekend at Bernice
Nosey Italian neighbors ruined its!
I get covering up her death, but why the fuck a freezer? That has to be the laziest, most ineffectual way of getting rid of a body you could think of. Like 5 minutes of thinking is sure to have at least ONE alternative come to mind.
She taught him the value of a dollar not how to dispose of a corpse.
Given that he said he had no money for a funeral I’m guessing he was planning to pull her body out one day and go “oh my goodness, she’s dead!” and have a funeral rather than just try to continue collecting her pension in perpetuity.
