>>21100733A reclusive family refused to believe their sister was dead after she stopped eating, and embalmed her body at their cottage, an inquest has heard.
Rina Yasutake, 49, shared a home with her mother and siblings in the village of Helmsley, North Yorkshire.
Suspicions were raised at the local chemist in September 2018, when her brother Takahiro, 51, and sister Yoshika, 56, repeatedly bought bottles of surgical spirit over a period of days.
Staff at the pharmacy reported that they smelled of "corpses", North Yorkshire Coroner's Court heard today.
Emergency services were called to the property and paramedics found Rina's dead body under a duvet on a mattress on the floor, on September 25, 2018.
While it was obvious that she had been dead for weeks, the family continued to believe she was alive, the inquest was told.
It was later established she had been unresponsive since August 18, though the date of death could not be conclusively determined, the inquest heard.
She was in an advanced state of decomposition to the point of mummification and a postmortem could not ascertain a cause of death.
Earlier that year, it was recorded that Ms Yasutake, who was 4ft 11in tall, weighed just six stone, six pounds.
Yoshika Yasutake told the psychiatrist: "She didn't say much so we said to her to eat and drink more.
"She looked like she was being nourished by eating her soul.
"I don't know how to explain. Even though she was not eating, she was nourished with spiritual food and she was fulfilled."
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/isolated-family-embalmed-sister-home-28951634https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-64264588 
