Woman Kept Grandma's Body In Basement Freezer for 15 Years to Collect Social Security, Police Say

A Pennsylvania woman stored her grandmother's corpse in a basement freezer for 15 years in order to keep collecting the dead woman's social security benefits, police say.

Cynthia Black, 61, funneled more than $186,000 from the federal government in checks written to Glenora Delahay, who Black said died in March 2004 at age 97, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Black reportedly told police she found her grandmother's body in their Ardmore home in 2004 and stashed it in a freezer in the basement because she needed the income from the $1,765 monthly checks.

The money was transferred to an account used by Black, her mother Glenora Waltzinger, who died in 2011, and Glenn Black Jr.

State Police spokesperson Kelly Osborne said she did not know if Cynthia and Glenn were married, per the news outlet.

Black allegedly used money from the social security checks to pay for a mortgage on a house in Dillsburg, 100 miles west of Ardmore; The family, including the grandmother's body, moved there in 2007.

In 2018, the house was foreclosed and Black moved out, while Black Jr. was in jail for indecent assault of a substantially impaired person in a February 2018 incident, according to the Inquirer.

In February 2019, two women went to look at the Dillsburg house, which was then owned by the mortgage company Fannie Mae. Police say the women found a freezer in a small building near the house. When they peeked inside, they found skeletal remains wrapped in a black garbage bag.

Police did not release a cause of Delahey's death, but said it was not suspicious.

Black was arrested and charged Wednesday for theft by unlawful taking, receiving stolen property, and abuse of a corpse.