Man hides father’s body inside home for two years to collect his welfare funds

GOSHEN, Indiana: A man has allegedly hidden his father’s dead body for two years inside his residence to get cash of his welfare funds.

A northern Indiana man identified as Irvin Nicholson Junior was facing charges of welfare fraud and others for hiding the dead body of his father after the concerned officers recovered Irvin Nicholson’s remains placed in a wheelbarrow in the backyard of an Elkhart County residence.

According to a report of Fox 59, the 57-year-old man was charged Tuesday with three counts of felony welfare fraud and one misdemeanour count of failure to report a dead body.

The charges came seven months after officers responding to a report of a dead body discovered Irvin Nicholson Sr.’s remains in a wheelbarrow in the backyard of an Elkhart County residence.

The court records stated Nicholson Junior told investigators that he and his father argued about his plans to put him in a retirement home, however, he found his father dead in the garage in May 2017 on the next day.

Concerned authorities alleged that the man wrapped his father’s body in a blanket and the remains were held mostly at one house before they were later moved to the Goshen home where they were found.

During the investigation of Social Security records, it emerged that May 2017 and August 2019, $27,210 was deposited into Nicholson Senior’s account. Another $9,828 was deposited between June 2017 and August 2019, according to the state’s Public Retirement System records.

The defendant allegedly told investigators that he would use a card to spend some of the money that his father continued to get deposited in an account.

From May 2017 through September 2019, Nicholson Junior admitted to using $9,318 that was paid into a bank account owned by his father, according to the US Office of Personnel Management records.

Online court records do not list an attorney who could speak on the younger Nicholson’s behalf.

A judge has not set an initial hearing date yet, but the prosecutor expects a summons will be issued for Nicholson Jr. However, he will face up to two and a half years in prison if found guilty.