60-Year-Old Man Found Living With Mum's Decomposing Corpse

A 60-year-old man from Florida, US, allegedly lived for months with his mother's decomposing body while he collected her Social Security money. Michael Sticken kept 81-year-old Joyce Willis' corpse on two couches pushed together, Santa Rosa County Sheriff's investigators said. She was buried under a pile of blankets, the Pensacola News Journal reported. The son had been ducking relatives since January, authorities said. Sheriff's deputies made a house call on May 13 to check on the mother and immediately noticed a terrible smell. They lifted the blankets and found the woman's corpse so badly decomposed she was unrecognisable, authorities said.

Willis had been dead for as long as four months when deputies found her, according to the medical examiner. The cause of death is still under investigation, but Sticken told deputies he didn't kill her. His mother was "his best friend," he allegedly told investigators. Sticken had reportedly been raiding a joint bank account he shared with Willis while she lay rotting on his couches. The only deposits to the account since January were her $1,400 monthly Social Security checks. Sticken had already withdrawn all the payments, bank records revealed.

He was arrested on Thursday into Santa Rosa County Jail on charges of grand theft and failure to report a death.

Source: NYDN