Amos, you beat me to this story, but I have a longer version, so I'll post it:

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Schuth: Mother died in 2000
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By Dan Springer / Lee Newspapers

LA CROSSE, Wis. — Philip Schuth said his mother died of natural causes in 2000, but he hid her body in a chest freezer because he was afraid of being charged with murder. He was particularly worried investigators would find her blood splattered on the wall of an upstairs hallway. It was from when a cat attacked her years before her death, he said. So he kept her death a secret for 41/2 years — painting over the blood and living off her Social Security checks, which were electronically deposited in a joint account. He also kept secret the "anti-personnel" bombs and a stash of guns in his basement, and set up booby traps in the house.

Those are some of the revelations made in a probable cause statement filed Monday in La Crosse County Court. According to the affidavit by Capt. Jeff Wolf of the sheriff's department, Schuth revealed his secrets to negotiators this weekend during a 14-hour standoff with police that began Friday evening. It began after Schuth reportedly struck a 10-year-old child and then shot the boy's father, who with his wife had driven to Schuth's home on French Island to confront him about the assault. The man, Randy Russell Jr., was treated for gunshot wounds to the right shoulder and released from Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center later that evening.

Schuth retreated into his home at 1330 Bainbridge St. and refused to come out. Investigators said that during the negotiations Schuth said he put his mother, Edith Schuth, in the freezer when she died Aug. 15, 2000. Schuth gave himself up Saturday morning, and officers searched the home.

Officers brought the freezer to the sheriff's department, where they took it apart. They chipped away enough of the roughly 300-pound block of ice to reveal an intact corpse in a sitting position. Police believe Edith Schuth was born 90 or 91 years ago. Officers also found 15 loaded handguns and homemade explosive devices Schuth said would be there, according to the affidavit.

The home had very little furniture and there was no running water, but Schuth had more than $10,000 in cash in the home and another $25,000 in a bank account, even though Schuth said he has not worked steadily in years, investigators said. Schuth said he calculated that without continuing income that money in the account would be depleted in about five years due to taxes, and he said he contemplated either killing himself or committing an armed robbery for which he would be immediately apprehended, said the affidavit.

At his first court appearance Monday, Schuth rocked gently in his courtroom chair and chatted with another inmate as he waited for the hearing to begin. At the hearing, Schuth said very little except to inform La Crosse County Circuit Judge Ramona Gonzalez that his name is pronounced "Schuf."

Gonzalez ordered Schuth held on a $100,000 cash bond after La Crosse County District Attorney Scott Horne said charges will not be filed until next week. Horne said he wants to wait until an autopsy is done to file charges.

When Schuth is next in court May 3, he could face a variety of charges including attempted homicide and two counts of first-degree reckless endangerment in connection with Friday's shooting. And, three counts of possession of improvised explosive devices, concealing a corpse and possession of a short-barreled shotgun, Horne said. Since the body was still frozen Monday, a forensic pathologist in Hastings, Minn., said the autopsy will have to be delayed until at least Thursday. While Horne said he does not believe Schuth killed his mother, the case is being treated as a homicide.

While Schuth was cooperative, he also warned negotiators that if officers entered his home with loaded guns it was going to be "high noon," according to the affidavit. He also told negotiators that he had more than 10, but less than 100 "anti-personnel devices" in the home, and when officers later searched the home they found two large shopping bags containing 15 to 20 explosive devices. The Dane County Bomb Squad examined the devices, Sunday discovering they were filled with explosive powder and metal objects including nails, heavy duty staples and other metal items, according to the affidavit. The squad detonated one to confirm the devices were functional.