A 73-year-old woman kept the body of her dead husband, 74, in their flat in the northern German port city of Hamburg for one and a half years.
The city's public prosecutor on Monday confirmed the case, which had originally been reported on in the popular Bild daily.
The caretaker of the two-storey flat in the Hamburg district of Poeseldorf was concerned about the elderly couple when he hadn't seen the husband for one and a half years, so he alerted the police.
When officers arrived at the residence on September 19, the woman refused them entry to a locked room, raising their suspicions.
When they entered the room, they found the badly decayed body of the husband.
The public prosecutor ordered an autopsy but found no evidence of foul play.
"It is just a case of a tragic family incident," spokeswoman Nana Frombach said.
"The old lady really had problems letting go."
