Normally when a person dies their pensions and retirement benefits cease. This is completely unfair to the spouse or individual who probably worked years to take care of this person as they are entitled to nothing. One Utah couple decided they were not going to let this happen.
Married couple Jeanne Sourone-Mathers and Paul Edward Mathers came up with a plan before the husband passed away so the wife would continue to receive full benefits long after his passing. Jeanne kept her husband Paul’s death a secret for 10 years in order to continue collecting his full benefits.
You may be wondering how she pulled this off. Jeanne put Paul’s body in a freezer where he remained until recently. The only reason the body was discovered is that police were called in to perform a wellness check on Mrs. Mather. When authorities arrived at the apartment of the couple they found 75-year old Jeanne dead. It wasn’t until further search that they also discovered Paul in the freezer with a notarized letter from 2008 saying his wife didn’t kill him. They believe the man died of a terminal illness.
According to Yahoo,
During a welfare check in November, authorities found Jeanne Sourone-Mathers, 75, dead in her apartment in Toole, Utah. After a further search, they also discovered the body of her husband, Paul Edward Mathers, in a freezer, FOX13 reported.
Mathers, who is believed to have been dead since 2009, was also found with a letter he allegedly wrote that stated his wife did not kill him.
“It was notarized on Dec. 2, 2008,” Tooele Police Sgt. Jeremy Hansen told FOX13. “We believe he had a terminal illness.”
Residents of the retirement community were the couple resided describe Jeanne Mathers as a sweet old lady who wouldn’t hurt a fly. Friends of the couple said they knew she was going to die soon because she had quit receiving dialysis treatments prior to her death.
Neighbor Evan Kline had this to say, “Jeanne was, by all appearances, a very nice person. Very friendly. We’ve talked to her quite a bit and took her to doctor appointments. The story that — at least she was putting out — was her husband walked out on her. Based on what I know now, I’d have to say it was probably the plan, yeah, for her to keep the money because it was her only source of income. I guess you could call it kind of smart — then again, crooks a lot of the time are smart.”
The investigation is still ongoing, they don’t expect any foul play though they haven’t completely ruled out homicide.
