Italian Man Caught Posing as Dead Mother in Bizarre “Mrs. Doubtfire” Pension Scam

Author­i­ties in north­ern Italy have uncov­ered a shock­ing case of decep­tion — one that sounds more like a dark com­e­dy than real life.

A 57-year-old unem­ployed nurse is accused of dis­guis­ing him­self as his late moth­er, Gra­ziel­la Dall’Oglio, to con­tin­ue col­lect­ing her month­ly widow’s pen­sion. Local reports say Ms. Dall’Oglio had been dead for about three years, but her son alleged­ly failed to report her death, hid­ing her body in his home while cash­ing in her ben­e­fits.

The “Mrs. Doubtfire” disguise

Accord­ing to Cor­riere del­la Sera, the man report­ed­ly went to extra­or­di­nary lengths to imper­son­ate his moth­er — styling his hair to resem­ble hers, apply­ing heavy make­up and foun­da­tion, wear­ing lip­stick, clip-on ear­rings, a pearl neck­lace, and a long skirt. Wit­ness­es said his trans­for­ma­tion was rem­i­nis­cent of Robin Williams’ famous under­cov­er nan­ny in Mrs. Doubt­fire.

His plan began to unrav­el when he showed up at a local reg­istry office in Bor­go Vir­gilio, near Man­tua, to renew his mother’s expired ID card. The clerk imme­di­ate­ly sus­pect­ed some­thing was wrong: his neck appeared too thick, the wrin­kles looked arti­fi­cial, and his hands seemed far younger than those of an 85-year-old woman.

Even his voice — described as “fem­i­nine but occa­sion­al­ly dip­ping into mas­cu­line tones” — drew sus­pi­cion.

Caught by keen observation

Francesco Apor­ti, the may­or of Bor­go Vir­gilio, lat­er told Cor­riere del­la Sera:

“He came into the coun­cil offices wear­ing a long skirt, lip­stick and nail var­nish, with a neck­lace and old-style ear­rings. But up close, his neck was too thick and his wrin­kles were strange. The skin on his hands did not seem to belong to an elder­ly woman. His voice, though soft, some­times sound­ed male. I might not have noticed these details had they not been point­ed out.”

Offi­cials com­pared the pho­to on the mother’s 10-year-old ID with the image of the man pos­ing as her — con­firm­ing their sus­pi­cions. The clerk alert­ed police, who soon launched an inves­ti­ga­tion.

A horrifying discovery

When offi­cers searched the suspect’s home, they found the mum­mi­fied remains of Ms. Dall’Oglio, report­ed­ly wrapped in sheets and stuffed inside two sleep­ing bags near a laun­dry area. Inves­ti­ga­tors believe the man used syringes to remove bod­i­ly flu­ids, attempt­ing to pre­serve the corpse and mask odors.

Author­i­ties say the elder­ly woman like­ly died of nat­ur­al caus­es, but a post-mortem exam­i­na­tion will con­firm the cause of death.

The motive: money

The man alleged­ly con­tin­ued to claim his mother’s pen­sion — esti­mat­ed at around €3,000 per month, well above Italy’s nation­al aver­age. The scheme went unde­tect­ed until he need­ed to renew her iden­ti­fi­ca­tion, forc­ing him to appear in per­son.

Facing serious charges

Pros­e­cu­tors have opened inves­ti­ga­tions for ben­e­fit fraud and con­ceal­ment of a corpse. The may­or described the case as “a very strange sto­ry — and a very, very sad one.”