Man Keeps Mother's Corpse Wrapped In Carpet In Living Room For 3 Weeks

A 49-year-old man kept his mother's corpse wrapped up in a carpet in the living room of a Texas home for about three weeks after her death.

Douglas Dean Kilburn was arrested and is facing charges in connection with the incident that took place in Van Zandt County.

Van Zandt County Sheriff Joe Carter said they began investigating after a friend of Kilburn's mother said they were worried about her and hadn't heard from her in a while, according to KLTV.

A deputy arrived at the woman's address on Feb. 14 to conduct a welfare check and even spoke to Kilburn about his mother. However, the 49-year-old son claimed his mother was visiting relatives in Oklahoma at the time, KETK reported.

The deputy left but returned to the house Monday to speak with Kilburn again.

"Something didn't sit right with the deputy so he went back," Carter said, as per KLTV.

The deputy persistently asked Kilburn for information on how to contact his mother. The son eventually admitted that his mother had passed away.

Kilburn also revealed that he still had his mother's corpse inside the house so that he could continue to "visit" her. The son said he had wrapped her body in a carpet and duct tape and was keeping the body in the living room.

The man noted that his mother died sometime around Feb. 1 and that he left her body in the residence for about 20 days.

Kilburn was arrested Monday and was charged with abuse of a corpse. Investigators are still awaiting the mother's autopsy results, after which Kilburn could face additional charges based on the woman's cause of death.

A similar incident was reported last year after a woman was found living with a dead man's corpse at a Kentucky hotel. Nicole McFall, 45, was arrested on Nov. 9, 2022, on charges of failure to report a dead body and tampering with physical evidence after the man's body was discovered in "advanced stages of decomposition" at Quality Inn in Brooks.