WTF: Woman Who Kept Mom’s Body for Benefits Gets Prison Term

A woman in Florida was sentenced to a year and a day in prison on Monday for storing her mother’s corpse in a bedroom in her house for several years while collecting more than $230,000 in benefits.

Penelope Sharon Jordan pleaded guilty to theft of government funds back in June, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami.

Police stated that, when they discovered the mother’s body in a spare bedroom in March, Jordan informed them that dear old mom had been deceased for at least six years. At the sentencing, evidence seemed to indicate that Jordan, 61, told her sister that their mother had been dead since at least December of 2001.

An autopsy that was performed uncovered no signs of foul play.

Jordan testified that she covered up her mother’s death so that she could keep collecting her Social Security and military pension benefits. During the time she kept her mother’s death a secret, Jordan collected $61,415 in Social Security payments and $176,461 from the military pension.

She was ordered to repay $237,876 to the government.

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