A man kept the body of his dead 95-year-old great aunt in a freezer for a year so he could claim her £2,000 a month pension, Italian police revealed today.Computer expert Gaetano Adragna, 43, hid Annita Bonnici's body in a freezer he had bought following her death last summer and continued to cash her pension after she had given him written authority.
Police arrested Adragna after worried neighbours of Mrs Bonnici, the wife of an army general, called them to say they had not seen her 'for months' at her home in Catania on the island of Sicily.
Officers traced her relatives and when they asked him about her he confessed and said: 'If you are looking for auntie Annita you'll find her in the freezer at her house.'
A squad car was immediately sent to the third floor apartment and when officers looked in the freezer they were stunned to find the corpse just as he had said.
Adragna told police that she had died some time 'last year, at the end of the summer' and had not told his elderly mother because he did not want to 'worry her.
He also did not alert the authorities and continued to claim her pension although police said he did not need the money as he had a good salary from his computer job.
Mrs Bonnici's body was taken to the mortuary of Catania's local hospital where it will be 'defrosted' so that a proper autopsy can be carried out to discover when and how she died.
Local Catania prosecutor Lucio Setola said:'Officers traced Adragna after neighbours reported they had not seen his great aunt for months and he confessed straight away.
'Her body was in the freezer just as he said it would be and further checks established that he had continued to claim her pension as she had given him authority to do so.
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