Overland Park couple plead guilty to stealing dead father’s retirement while hiding body

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Johnson County, Kansas couple pled guilty Friday in federal court in a case where they collected more than $215,000 in retirement benefits on behalf of a dead relative, while they hid his body for years.

Lynn and Kirk Ritter appeared in Kansas Federal Court on Friday, pleading guilty to wire fraud and theft of government funds .

Federal prosecutors say the Ritter’s concealed the body of 81-year-old Mike Carroll in Overland Park. Carroll was Lynn Ritter’s father.

Carroll’s pacemaker indicated he died in July of 2016, but prosecutors say the couple never reported the death and left Carroll’s body in a bedroom, while continuing to deposit and spend money from Carroll’s bank account even while his body became “mummified” on a bed in the home he owned.

That was until October of 2022 when Kirk Ritter called police to report his death .

Sentencing is set to take place in December.

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