96-year-old Faye B. Whiteford found dead, wrapped in a tarp, and at an abandoned house
SOMERSET, Ky.—Authorities are just today beginning to unravel a bizarre case in Pulaski County, Kentucky, involving a man who collected social security benefits on his dead mother…who happened to be wrapped in a tarp and in a freezer for the past three years.
It is suspected that 59-year-old Jon Whiteford kept the body of his mother, Faye, in a freezer for the past three years, for the singular purpose of claiming the benefits. Records show Whiteford was his mother’s primary caregiver and had control of her finances. But it wasn’t until the Social Security Administration noticed that Faye, a former schoolteacher who would have been 96 this year, had not logged a medical claim in over three years that federal investigators contacted Pulaski County Sheriff Todd Wood for help locating Faye and her son.
Then in early March, Jon Whiteford was ‘located’ while trying to apply for social security benefits of his own in Somerset.
The police questioned Whiteford about his mother and he confirmed that Faye had in fact passed on, but he did not tell them where her body was, or how long she had been dead. Whiteford also told the police he was living in his car since the house he stayed at with his mother had been ‘repossessed.’
Later on the police received new information claiming that Whiteford did have his own place and that it was right next door to the home he shared with his mother. On March 29th a deputy went to speak with Whiteford about his mother’s whereabouts…only for Whiteford to pull out a pistol and take his own life.
Without Whiteford’s input, it seemed that they would never find Faye’s remains, until they received a tip claiming that Whiteford had tried to rent a home in Wayne County, Kentucky. It was there at this abandoned, rundown home Lt. detective Brett Whitaker found Faye’s body wrapped up and dumped alongside of the house.
Friends of the family claim they have been informed Faye died of natural causes and they believe that the only reason her son hid her body was to continue receiving her benefits.
You can read more about this bizarre case here; unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident, as many people have, in the past few years of economic downturn and struggle, resorted to falsifying documents about deceased relatives in order to continue to obtain “free money.”