Community Chat

[SeaMaiden]

A woman kept her grandmother's body hidden in a basement freezer for 16 years in social security scheme, police say

By Leah Asmelash, CNN

Updated 12:19 PM EDT, Fri May 29, 2020

(CNN)Last year, police in Pennsylvania found old human remains in a freezer. Now, an investigation has concluded that it was all part of a scam to collect social security checks.

Pennsylvania State Police first found the remains in February 2019, in a house in Dillsburg.  After investigating, they identified the deceased as Glenora Delahay, born May 3, 1906.

Cynthia Black, Delahay's granddaughter, has now been arrested and charged with theft by unlawful taking, receiving stolen property, and abuse of a corpse

Black reported that she found her grandmother's body in their Ardmore home in 2004, and told police her family needed the income Delahay received from social security, according to the police affidavit obtained by CNN.

She put Delahay's remains in a freezer, that was kept in the basement of the Ardmore home, police said.

Then, in 2007, Black transported Delahay from Ardmore to the home in Dillsburg, using Delahay's social security income to pay the mortgage, the affidavit stated.

An arrest warrant was issued Tuesday, and Black was taken into custody Wednesday, the news release stated.

It was not clear whether Black has a lawyer. Trooper Kelly Osborne, of the Pennsylvania State Police, told CNN Black has been released on an unsecured $50,000 bail.

[Anonymous032819]

Yeah, I think that somebody would get suspicious when checks were being sent to a 114 year old!

[Spurt]

😮

[SandySparkles]

😲. Unconsciounable!!! Stories like this leave me shaking my head. Who really knows what happened to that poor dear.🙁

~~~All we need is LOVE💖 

[shoekitty]

What wicked webs we weave when first we practice to deceive.

[Silver Lining]

@SeaMaiden 

shades of a modern day version of the movie "Psycho"

[Jordan2]

I don't know how people get away with this. My mother got a pension from her job when she retired. Every year the union sent a form she had to fill out and have notarized to prove she was still alive. 

[shoekitty]

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@Jordan2 wrote:

I don't know how people get away with this. My mother got a pension from her job when she retired. Every year the union sent a form she had to fill out and have notarized to prove she was still alive. 

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Shoekitty said, I wonder how they do it too.  For heavens sake .  I am in charge of my brothers SS disability account.  They deduct $5.20 from his check about 7 months after they discover they paid him too much.  I have appts wth SS all the time for him to go over his finances.  How do people do this.?  I truly don't understand

[Linmo]

If the grandmother had been living alone when she passed and had no children, other grandchildren or friends checking in on her, it is possible.  I wonder how they discovered it?  They must have been executing some sort of search warrant on the property.  

[Anonymous032819]

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@Linmo wrote:

If the grandmother had been living alone when she passed and had no children, other grandchildren or friends checking in on her, it is possible.  I wonder how they discovered it?  They must have been executing some sort of search warrant on the property.  

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@Linmo 

I don't know if you read the article, but the woman's body was found in the basement freezer.

She didn't put herself in the freezer, and it wasn't like her body was found in the living room floor.

Why would any reasonable person put a human body in a freezer, if not for nefarious reasons?

Wouldn't a reasonable person call 9-1-1 upon discovering a dead body?

I know that I would.