Authorities say Robert Kuefler lived with the dead bodies of his mother, brother for a year. (Photo Credit: Ramsey County Sheriff's Office)
Robert Kuefler’s twin brother, Richard, and his mother both passed in the Summer of 2015.
Kuefler was so shook up from the death of the two family members that he didn’t tell anyone and decided to live with their decomposing bodies for over a year. Kuefler claimed he was too distraught to alert authorities of their deaths.
"I was traumatized," Kuefler told The Associated Press on Saturday. "What would you do?"
White Bear Police charged Kuefler, 60, this week with “interference with a dead body or scene of death” because Kuefler moved his brother's body after his passing. The report claims that both the brother and the mother died of natural causes in more than two years ago.
“This is our way of introducing this case onto the court,” White Bear Police Capt. Dale Hager told the AP. “We do believe his actions violated the law. Moving the body of his brother disrupted the death scene.”
According to Fox News, several months after their deaths, Kuefler sent other family members Christmas cards and wrote that the two were in bad health, could not talk on the phone, and did not want visitors.
“I am not some nutball,” Kuefler told the Associated Press. "People think I am, but I'm not. I loved them."
The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that police did not find the bodies until September 2016, after neighbors reported that the Kueflers' lawn in White Bear Lake was overgrown. Police saw a body through the window during the visit, and that’s how it was uncovered.
The cops found the mother’s body “reduced to skeletal remains”, while the brother was “mummified,” court papers state.
Kuefler, who has no criminal history, claims he doesn’t need counseling. Instead, he suggested that he did the right thing by granting his mother’s wish to die at home. He was originally accused of trying to profit off his brother and mother’s disability and Social Security payments but was never charged.