3 children arrested for receiving dead parents’ pensions for 15 years

OMUTA, Fukuoka — A man and his two sisters were arrested for illegally receiving their deceased parents’ pensions for at least 15 years after their mummified bodies, and those of three other siblings, were found at their home here last year, police said.

Takeshi Nagae, 70, his 59-year-old sister Chiyoko and 52-year-old sister Michiko stand accused of fraud.

They admitted to the allegations during questioning.

“We had no choice but to cheat the pension system to survive,” Takeshi was quoted as telling investigators.

Takeshi had initially said they abandoned the five bodies in the hope that they would return to life. “Since my childhood, my mother had taught me that dead people would return to life. My father died about 20 years ago, but I thought he might return to life if I continued to offer a prayer for him.”

They received more than 910,000 yen in pension payments for their father Shigeo and mother Fumiko from April 2006 to February 2007 alone without reporting their deaths to the government, local police said.

The mummified bodies of the suspects’ parents were found at their home along with those of their eldest daughter Shizuko, second daughter Yasuko and second son Keiji in April last year.

Prefectural police confirmed their identities through DNA tests. Autopsies have found the suspects’ father, who was born in 1911, is estimated to have died sometime around October 1986 while his wife born in 1915 is believed to have died around May 1992.