Sisters Keep Mom’s Decomposing Body At Home In Effort To ‘Resurrect’ Her

A pair of sisters in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu kept their 78-year-old mother's decomposing body in their home allegedly for the purpose of bringing her back to life.

Trichy police recovered the decomposed body, identified as retired teacher B Mary, in her residence in Sokkampatti village Saturday, newspaper The Times of India reported.

Mary died five days prior to the discovery, according to the outlet. Her two daughters, 40-year-old B Jacintha and 43-year-old B Jayanthi, attempted to "resurrect" their mother through prayer, police said.

Authorities learned of Mary's decomposing body after an anonymous caller reported of a rotten smell that was coming from the family's residence.

Mary's two daughters initially refused to let the responders enter the home and locked the door from inside, police said.

"They maintained their mother was alive and that her sacred soul will be hurt if we enter the house," Manapparai police inspector S Karunakaran was quoted as saying in the report.

Police later sought for the help of the village administrative office, who warned the two women that authorities would break the door open if they were to continue denying them entrance.

"Finally, they relented and we found the decomposed body of Mary inside the house," Karunakaran said.

Police took the retired teacher's body to the government headquarters hospital in Manapparai. A post-mortem was performed on Saturday morning, but police struggled to convince Mary's daughters she was dead.

"Even after bringing the body to [the government hospital], they argued with us that their mother was alive," Karunakaran said.

"They maintained the same even after conducting the post-mortem," he added.

Mary's cause of death was not disclosed.

Police accompanied the two women with Mary's body, which was later buried. It was unclear if the sisters faced charges over the incident.

A similar incident happened in the state of Karnataka in May when police discovered that a mentally ill woman spent two days living with the decomposing bodies of her mother and younger brother because she allegedly believed they were "sleeping."

Rajarajeshwari Nagar police responded to a residence in Bangaluru on May 12 over reports of a foul smell coming out of the house and found the woman, identified as 47-year-old Srilakshmi, and her two deceased family members.

The deceased were later identified as 45-year-old Harish and 65-year-old Aryamba, who were Srilakshmi's brother and mother, respectively.

An investigation revealed Harish isolated himself inside the residence after testing positive for COVID-19 in late April.

Aryamba fell on the floor days prior to the discovery of the bodies, which prompted Harish to call an ambulance. Harish, however, later fell on the floor as well. He attempted to dial 108 - India's emergency number for ambulance services - on May 11, but nobody responded to the calls.

Srilakshmi was allegedly unable to realize her mother and brother were dead due to her mental condition. She allegedly thought her two family members were sleeping, so she waited for them to wake up.

"My mother used to cook for me and my brother. I thought she was sleeping. I did not eat anything as my mother did not wake up and prepare any food," Srilakshmi was quoted as saying when asked by officials why she did not eat food for two days.

Police filed the incident as a case of unnatural death.