Here’s a story about a mom who really gave her son the cold shoulder — and cold neck, and cold legs, and cold etc. (you get the idea).
According to the AP, a Wisconsin man hept his dead mother in a freezer for several years because he wanted to collect her Social Security checks.
This isn’t the first story of a son whose mother has a cold heart but it is a bit unusual, so here are the details:
A man accused of holding off police for nearly 15 hours last week by threatening them with explosives told officers he kept his dead mother in a freezer for years while he collected her Social Security checks, authorities said Monday.
Philip Schuth, 52, told police his mother, Edith, died of natural causes in August 2000, but he didn’t tell anyone because he was afraid police would blame him, according to documents filed in court Monday.
Why would he think police would do that? We don’t really know, but that does explains why he stuck her in a freezer. Now the big question is: did she fit in easily with the Haagen Daz and Bagel Bites? More:
Police recovered the chest-type freezer in Schuth’s basement after he surrendered. Inside they found what they think is a human body, frozen in a seated position encased in mounds of ice. Schuth told investigators he had no other means of income other than his mother’s Social Security checks, the court document said.
Then it’s a typical family problem: the son had financial problems and his mother froze in this situation.
La Crosse County Circuit Judge Ramona Gonzalez set Schuth’s bail Monday at $100,000, and the district attorney said he expected to charge Schuth next week.
Investigators found the freezer at the end of an all-night standoff at Schuth’s home in Campbell Township, north of La Crosse.
The standoff began Friday when 10-year-old Josh Russell told his father, Randy, that he had been in Schuth’s yard and Schuth hit him. Randy Russell, his wife, Melissa, and the boy then confronted Schuth, who admitted that he hit the boy. Then Schuth pulled out a handgun and opened fire from about 8 yards away, injuring Randy Russell.
Meanwhile, the body in the freezer has yet to be identified. An autopsy is expected to be completed late this week.
But where’s his father? We know his mom is at home, but is there a Popsicle Pop there, too?
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.