Woman who lived with brother's mummified corpse until it skeletonized tried to throw it away with household garbage

A Japanese woman who lived for years with her brother's mummified corpse tried to dispose of him with the household rubbish when she finally realized he was dead, police say.

The woman, 49, told officers she discovered the desiccated cadaver of Masao Tadano as she and another sister tried to move house last November.

It's not known how many years Tadano, who would have been 48 at the time, had been dead, but it was long enough for his body to have become skeletonized. Tadano lived with his two sisters in an old house in northern Hokkaido but confined himself to his room and had not communicated with his family for many years.

His dismembered body was discovered by demolition workers in a number of plastic bags left with household rubbish when the family moved out, police reported. The woman, whose case has been sent straight to prosecutors without her being arrested, told police she "did not want to be criticized and thought it would be gotten rid of in the rubbish'', an investigator said.