Remember the first time you saw Hitchcock’s “Psycho” and found out the truth about Mrs. Bates?
That iconic scene has become a pop culture classic and has probably fueled some of your own nightmares at some point. Now, imagine seeing something like that in real life.
In September 2016, policemen from White Bear, Minnesota had a Bates Motel moment when they found a 60-year-old man named Robert James Kuefler living with the remains of his dead mother and twin brother a year after they have died. Yeah, you read that right—one whole year.
The police, who were responding to requests by Kuefler’s neighbors to check out the house, reported that the place had a strong smell of decay. They found the skeletal remains of Evelyn Kuefler, Robert’s mother, in an upstairs bedroom; the mummified corpse of Robert’s twin brother named Richard was found in the basement.
Autopsies on both bodies showed that they died of natural causes. Richard died on July 2015 and his mother a month later. There was no foul play involved, and there was also no evidence to accuse Robert Kuefler of financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult. So, why did he keep their remains hidden in the house?
“I was traumatized. What would you do?” he said in an interview.
Kuefler further stated that he found his brother dead in a chair in July 2015. As for his mother, he knew she was dying and didn’t want to be around when it happened so he drove for a couple of hours. She was dead when he returned home. He kept both deaths from other family members, and even sent out Christmas cards saying that Evelyn and Richard were in bad health and asked that no one come visit them.
Kuefler was charged with interference with a dead body or scene of death by the Minnesota police last week, more than a year after the case first came to light.
Despite all this, Kuefler insisted that he “is not some nut ball” though he’s sure people think he is. He also thinks he doesn’t need psychiatric help, an option that is now made accessible to him through the court system. /PAR
