A 75-year-old woman in Japan has been arrested for keeping her daughter’s corpse in a freezer for 20 years, police announced today.

On Tuesday, the woman went to the police with a family member to report that she had been storing a body in her freezer, stating that “it was her daughter,” who had been born in 1975, a police spokesperson told AFP.

Officers who searched her home, located in northeastern Tokyo, found the body of a woman curled up, dressed in a T-shirt and underwear, inside the freezer.

Police clarified that “the body was in an advanced state of decomposition” and that a forensic examination will be conducted to determine the cause of death.

The woman, who was arrested on suspicion of abandoning a corpse, told investigators that the odor had spread through the house, so she purchased the freezer to place her daughter’s body inside.

“Twenty years ago, the smell of the body filled the whole house, so I bought a freezer and put it in there,” the 75-year-old reportedly said.

Police also noted that the woman, who had other children, had been living alone following her husband’s death a few weeks ago.