Mum keeps daughter's body in bathroom for five years, police find skeletal remains

A 60-year-old woman has been arrested for allegedly keeping her daughter's body inside her bathroom for five years. The cause of the victim's death has not been identified yet.

The shocking incident that occurred in the Kuwaiti city of Salmiya came to light Wednesday after the victim's brother approached police. The man told the officers that his younger sister's body was inside the bathroom of their family home, and only skeletal remains were left, Kuwait Times quoted local media.

Officers who went to the woman's home found the body inside a bathroom. The bedroom to which the bath was attached was sealed with wood. The room was filled with dust and hadn't been opened for years, officers said.

The search revealed the woman had covered the central air-conditioning vents with plastic to avoid the odor of the decomposing corpse from reaching the rest of the building. She also installed many AC units inside the house to maintain good ventilation, reports added.

The body was referred to forensic medicine to determine the cause and time of death, officers said. The victim is said to be in her early 20s.

The mother was taken to custody along with her two sons. However, the son who sounded the alarm was later released. Reports said the mother was a cancer patient, and she and her two sons did not appear sane.

During interrogation, the mother reportedly told police that she did lock up her daughter to "stop her from going out of the house." She claimed to have provided the victim food and drinks until one day she found her dead. However, she decided against reporting the death because she feared the authorities might accuse her of killing her daughter.

Meanwhile, the father of the victim alleged that the woman used to physically abuse her daughter. In his statement to the public prosecution, the victim's father said that he and his ex-wife divorced four years ago due to her "harsh treatment" of their children. He alleged that the suspect would abuse their children repeatedly as a way of disciplining them.