Subiaco, Lazio
© taymtaym/FlickrThe pensioner's body was found in the town of Subiaco, Lazio.
Subiaco - A gruesome discovery was made recently in an isolated house in Subiaco, Italy. A man's elderly father had died in August 2011 and he hid the body in a sealed room in his house in order to continue collecting his father's pension.

Giampiero Di Tullion, the man's unemployed, 44 year-old-son has now been arrested by the police.

His father, Domenico Di Tullio was a former typesetter working at the Vatican. He passed away on August 4, 2011 at the age of 85. His son wished to continue collecting his pension of between 1300 and 1400 euros per month, as they both used to live on the money. He walled his father's corpse up in his small bedroom off the living room of the house, and sealed the doorway with silicon.

Son Giampiero was a former drug addict and was involved in drug dealing. Due to his history, and the fact that his father owned weapons, police were making a routine check of the house.

When they arrived at the house, they asked to speak to the father, and at first the son told them that his father was seriously ill and was under the care of his brother in Rome.

Roma Today (Italian) reported that the police became suspicious, however, and officers, led by Captain Alessio Falzone, entered the house. When they got no answer at the bedroom door in the living room, they broke in through the sealed door. Not finding anything initially in there, they continued investigating, and discovered a double wall, a kind of niche made of bricks and cement, behind which he had concealed the body of his dead father.

According to police, the body was wrapped in tape, similar to a mummy. On investigating further, police found blood stains and they did not, at first, exclude the possibility that the man could have been murdered.

Giampiero was arrested on the charge of concealing a corpse, along with aggravated fraud. He did, however, manage to escape the charge of voluntary manslaughter, as the autopsy showed that his father died of natural causes.

Giampeiro's story:

Blitz Quotidiano (Italian language) reported that on his arrest Giampeiro told the police the sad story. He said that in August 2011, on waking, his found his father dead in bed. He said it was like "plunging into a tunnel" because his father was his only friend and confidant and he was now gone forever. And he also realized that the money would be gone forever too.

After a day of confusion, he decided to wall the body up inside the room in the house and continue visiting the post office once a month to collect his father's pension. Which he continued to do for over two years.

When police found the concealed door in the house, Di Tullio confessed to them: "Do not open that door, my father is sick ... Or rather, he is dead."

Similar incidences:

The story brings to mind a recent similar incident reported by Digital Journal, where in Borgo San Dalmazzo, Italy, police found the corpse of a 68-year-old woman in the closet of a bedroom. The mother of her son-in-law, who shared the house, had concealed the body for pretty much the same reason - sharing pension funds and a roof over her head. The body was only found because the woman had also passed away and neighbors complained about the smell.

In Spain, another grisly find was made when a 37-year-old woman passed away in Manresa. After being called to the scene due to the smell, police discovered not only her body, but also the decomposed corpse of her father, who had probably died a year or more before.

With the current economic crisis in Europe and people struggling to make ends meet and buy food, it makes you wonder if this sort of crime will become even more popular. While the deceased might not be worth much financially dead, their pensions are more than enough incentive to pretend they are still alive.