Man confesses to keeping mother in freezer for years
www.chinaview.cn 2005-04-26 15:46:36
BEIJING, April 26 -- A US man, only suspected of shooting his neighbor at first, has confessed to keeping his mother's corpse in a freezer for more than four years while he collected her pension.
Philip Schuth, 52, told police his elderly mother, Edith, died of natural causes in August 2000, but he didn't tell anyone because he was afraid police would blame him.
He said his mother was attacked by a cat a few years earlier, and her blood was on the walls of the house they shared. He feared police would think he killed her.
It began after Schuth reportedly struck a 10-year-old child and then shot the boy's father, who with his wife had driven to Schuth's home on French Island in the Mississippi River to confront him about the a**ault.
When police arrived, Schuth retreated into his home and refused to come out. He gave himself up next morning, and police searched the home.
Police recovered a chest-type freezer in Schuth's basement. They revealed an intact corpse in a sitting position after chipping away enough of the roughly 300-pound block of ice.
Police also found 15 loaded handguns and homemade explosive devices Schuth said would be there.
The boy's father was treated at a hospital and released. His wife and child were not wounded.
Schuth may be charged next week with attempted homicide and reckless endangerment for allegedly shooting at the family, as well as having improvised explosives and concealing a corpse.
Few people knew the Schuths, especially Edith and her son Philip, who were constantly together and both lived private lives, says a childhood friend of Schuth.
