CHICAGO - A Wisconsin man kept his mother in a freezer in his basement for more than four years while he lived off her Social Security checks, a court heard Monday.
The body was discovered after Philip Schuth, 52, surrendered following a 15-hour standoff with police in LaCrosse, Wisconsin a town of 50,000 people.
The standoff was sparked by a dispute Schuth had with a neighbor whose son had complained that Schuth had hit him. When the father asked Schuth what had happened, Schuth pulled a handgun from his pocket and shot the man in the face and shoulder.
Schuth then locked himself in his house and threatened to use "more than 10 and less than 100" homemade bombs and a sawed off shotgun to declare "high noon" on any police who tried to enter, the charging papers said.
During the standoff, Schuth told police that he didn't want to come out because he was afraid he'd get in trouble because of his mother's corpse.
Schuth surrendered at 7:30 am Saturday and police found "mounds of ice" in the basement freezer. The officers chipped away at the ice until they discovered a human knee.
Schuth told police his mother had died of natural causes on August 15, 2000 and that he had placed her in the freezer because he was afraid that he'd be charged in her death. He had painted over large blood splatters on the walls of an upstairs hallway which he blamed on a cat who he said attacked his mother some years ago.
An autopsy on Edith Schuth is expected to be performed later in the week after her corpse thaws, the charging papers said.
04/26/2005 18:59 GMT