Russian police who smelled something amiss when the owners of a Moscow apartment failed to pay their bills found four mummified corpses and a fridge full of out-of-date food, the prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday.
Investigators established that the bodies were those of four family members, who died at intervals over a five-year period, prosecutor’s spokesperson Sergei Marchenko said.
The first of the four deaths, about five years ago, was that of a man born in 1912.
His death was followed by that of his wife, born in 1914, their daughter, born in 1942, and their granddaughter, born in 1971.
“The initial results of our investigations show that all the people died at different times over a five-year period,” Marchenko was quoted by Interfax as saying.
A murder investigation has been opened in relation to the find, he said.
While the precise time of the last death has not been established, food in the apartment’s fridge dated from 2003, he added.
The investigators also found a large amount of religious literature. — AFP