Mary Kersting pleaded guilty to charges stemming from her decision to store her mother’s decomposing body in her upstate New York apartment for a year in order to continue collecting Social Security and pension benefits — more than $14,000-worth. She will be sentenced on November 6 and faces six months in jail. Ninety-three-year-old Hope Ruller’s body sat in Kersting’s apartment from October 2013 to December 2014; a granddaughter found her when going to check on the woman, whom no one had seen in more than a year, and called the police. Kersting was charged with grand larceny, unlawful disposal of a body, and endangering the welfare of a disabled person. She was not charged for improperly and unwisely taking inspiration from a William Faulkner story.
