A 55-year-old man was arrested after police found his father's body sealed inside a commercial freezer at a hotel in Mystras, with authorities saying he concealed the death for roughly two and a half years to continue collecting the 90-year-old's pension.
Police, accompanied by a judicial officer, discovered the body during an investigation into the elderly man's disappearance from Paleochori, in the Arcadia region, which had spanned at least two and a half years.
The freezer's lid had been weighed down with wooden bed slats to prevent it from being opened.
No visible signs of trauma have been found on the body so far, though officials say the freezing process must first be reversed before an autopsy can determine the exact cause and time of death.
A coroner and forensic team from the Sparta Criminal Investigation Bureau were dispatched to the scene.
The suspect initially told police his father was living in Athens with a home caregiver, providing his sister's address in the Athens suburb of Kaisariani.
When officers located her, she told them their father had permanently relocated to Mystras in 2001, contradicting her brother's account. He was arrested shortly afterward.
He has since admitted his father died of natural causes roughly two and a half years ago and that he hid the body in the freezer to continue collecting his pension.
He faces charges of false testimony, fraud and weapons violations, after an air rifle was found at his home; he had recently undergone a psychiatric evaluation to obtain a hunting weapons license.
Authorities are examining all possible circumstances surrounding the death, pending autopsy results.
The case is being investigated by Sparta's Crime Prevention and Detection Unit.