A 70-year-old man was arrested after it was revealed that kept his dead wife’s body for two years in his house located in Rancagua, O’Higgins Region.
It all started when the older adult came to the Prosecutor’s Office to regularize the death of his 67-year-old wife, who had died in September 2022 due to a terminal illness, and whose body has been kept in the home since then.
After going to the home, personnel from the Homicide Brigade discovered a coffin on an altar in the patio of the property, with a body inside apparently that of a woman.
According to subprefect Daniel Aranedathe «presence of a woman who had died due to a medically certified illness was proven, but whose surviving spouse did not register the death in the Civil Registry Service, keeping his remains unburied since 2022 at home.»
However, the authorities have not been able to verify if it is the old man’s wife, due to the advanced state of decomposition of the body, which is why «it was lifted by the Legal Medical Service of Rancagua in order to carry out identification tests and thanatological examination,» added the detective.
Although the man had his spouse’s death certificate, it is unknown why he did not initiate the procedures to bury her in accordance with existing regulations, which is why he was warned by violation of health regulations and possible illegal burial.