Lisa Marie Presley left her dead son’s body on ice at home for two months as she struggled with the grief of his sudden death, the family revealed in a newly released book.

The macabre revelation came in From Here to the Great Unknown, Presley’s memoir completed by her daughter, actor Riley Keough, after her death in January last year.

The 54-year-old was the only child of rock icon Elvis Presley.

Elvis’ grandson, 27-year-old Benjamin Keough, died by suicide in 2020, a tragedy that devastated his mother.

“My mother had my brother in our house instead of keeping him in the morgue,” Keough wrote. “They told us if we could take care of the body we could have him home, so she kept him on dry ice in our house for a while.”

She continued: “It was really important that my mother had enough time to say goodbye to him, like she had with her father. And I went and sat with him.”

Presley wrote that California has no laws specifying when a body must be buried or otherwise disposed of.

“My house has a separate casitas bedroom, and I put Ben there for two months,” Presley said. “There is no law in the state of California that says you have to bury someone immediately. I found a very compassionate funeral home owner. I told her that having my father in the house after his death was incredibly helpful because I could go and spend time with him and talk to him. She said, “We’re bringing Ben Ben to you.”

Presley wrote: “I think it would scare the hell out of anyone else if their son was there like that. But not me.”

The room where Benjamin Keough’s body was placed had a temperature of 55 degrees, and his mother “got so used to him, taking care of him and keeping him there,” the memoir says.

Thanks to the work of an artist who made a home visit, Benjamin Keough’s mother and sister received tattoos that matched his.

“Do you happen to have any photos?” the tattoo artist asked, according to the book.

“No,” Lisa Maria replied, “but I can show you.”

Keough wrote that this tattoo moment was strange even by Presley standards.

“Lisa Marie Presley had just asked this poor man to look at her dead son’s body, which happened to be right next to us in the casitas. “I have lived an extremely absurd life, but this moment is in the top 5,” she wrote.

The tattoo moment may also have been the moment when everyone agreed that Benjamin Keough needed to find a final resting place outside of this house.

“Shortly after that, we all got the feeling from my brother that he didn’t want his body in this house anymore,” Riley Keough said.

The actress then remembered her brother and imagined how he would have felt in that situation.

Riley Keough wrote: “‘Guys,’ he seemed to say, ‘this is getting weird.’ Even my mom said she could feel him talking to her and said, “This is crazy mom, what are you doing?”

Both Benjamin Keough and his mother are now buried at Graceland.