Finnish brothers face new charges over parents’ bodies kept frozen for 30 years

Two brothers, aged approximately 80 and 70, have been charged with violating the peace of the grave in a new case linked to the decades-long freezing of their parents’ bodies, Yle reports. The alleged offence took place in Turku last autumn.

A court hearing scheduled for Thursday in Turku District Court has been postponed to September. Prosecutors confirmed the new charges involve separate allegations from the original 2024 case, when the elder brother was first accused of disturbing the peace of the grave. Both cases remain active, with the earlier charge also set for review this autumn.

The postponement follows the failure to properly summon the younger brother in the new case. Prosecutors and police declined to provide further details, citing ongoing investigations.

The brothers’ parents, who died in the 1990s, were discovered in a freezer at a Turku detached house in summer 2024. Their deaths are not considered suspicious. The elder brother previously told Yle the freezing aligned with their parents’ wishes, while the younger brother was initially suspected but not charged.

New charges, filed in March, allege offences between 10–23 October 2025—over a year after the bodies were found. The elder brother dismissed the accusations as “baseless” before ending a call with Yle. The younger brother could not be reached for comment.

The parents were buried in late 2025 at Turku Cemetery after their home municipalities, Lieto and Mariehamn, arranged the funerals following police intervention. The brothers had resisted burial orders, appealing to the Turku Administrative Court. The elder brother’s 2025 application to establish a private burial site in Paimio was rejected.

Both brothers have prior convictions. The elder, a former doctor, was fined in 2017 for unauthorised medical practice and had his licence restricted in 2013 over inadequate patient records. The younger was given a suspended sentence in 2020 for aggravated fraud after exploiting his dementia-stricken spouse’s finances, and in 2017 for accounting and copyright violations tied to her business.