Italian police have arrested a 57-year-old man accused of disguising himself as his late mother in an attempt to renew her identity card and continue collecting her state pension.
Authorities in Mantua said the suspect, a former nurse, never reported the death of his mother, Graziella Dall’Oglio, who died in 2022 at age 82 in Borgo Virgilio, northern Italy.
When her identity card expired, police allege that he put on a wig, makeup and her clothes to pose as her for the mandatory in-person renewal.
His unusual appearance raised suspicion. The officer handling the application noticed dark hair on the “elderly woman’s” neck, chin and hands, and alerted the police.
Officers then summoned the supposed Mrs. Dall’Oglio back to the municipal office. Surveillance footage later captured the suspect driving to the appointment while dressed in the disguise, even though his mother did not have a driver’s licence.
Police arrested him at the scene and searched the family home, where they discovered Dall’Oglio’s mummified body in a closet, wrapped in sleeping bags.
Investigators say the man used a syringe to remove bodily fluids to slow decomposition. An autopsy has been ordered to determine the cause of her death.
He now faces multiple charges, including concealing a corpse, fraud against the state, impersonation and forging a public document. He is currently being held in a local jail while prosecutors await autopsy results.
Italian authorities say pension fraud remains a recurring problem, largely due to delays between local death registries and national pension offices, which sometimes allow payments to continue for years unless families report a death.