A woman and her partner were arrested on suspicion that they buried her 93-year-old Holocaust survivor mother in the backyard after she died, in order to keep getting her survivor and social security benefits, the Israel Police said Monday.

After the pair was arrested on an unspecified date, the daughter’s partner took his own life, having realized police had discovered that he was the one who had hidden the body, police said.

Police are awaiting the results of an autopsy to determine how Maina Tolstikov died, the Ynet news site reported.

While there was apparently no immediate suspicion that the couple was involved in the older woman’s death, a senior police officer said that the pair had stashed the body in an old ice cream freezer before burying it in a three-meter deep pit in the backyard.

The 64-year-old daughter faces charges of fraud and interfering in a police investigation, along with failing to report the death.

According to Ynet, the pair fraudulently received benefits worth some NIS 18,000 (approximately........

© The Times of Israel