Lisa Marie Presley, the only daughter of Elvis Presley, revealed a heartbreaking and unsettling detail in her memoir From Here to the Great Unknown, which was completed by her daughter, actress Riley Keough, after Lisa Marie’s passing in January 2023.
In the book, Presley disclosed that after her son, Benjamin Keough, tragically died by suicide in 2020 at the age of 27, she kept his body at home for two months, struggling to cope with the grief. Presley explained that she had arranged for Benjamin’s body to be kept on dry ice at their house, as California law does not mandate immediate burial or disposition of a body.
“My mom had my brother in the house with us instead of keeping him at the morgue,” Riley Keough wrote in the memoir. “They told us that if we could tend to the body, we could have him at home, so she kept him in our house for a while on dry ice.”
Presley explained that this time allowed her to say goodbye to her son in the same way she had done with her father, Elvis Presley, when he passed away. The body was kept in a separate bedroom at their home, which was maintained at 55 degrees. Presley mentioned how she grew accustomed to being with her son, spending time with him and talking to him. Riley Keough added that the situation felt strange and surreal but was part of her mother’s process of grief.
In an unexpected moment, both Lisa Marie and Riley Keough got tattoos in memory of Benjamin, marking the occasion with an artist who visited their home. However, Keough recounted how the tattoo artist was unexpectedly asked to view her late brother’s body in the adjacent room during the process, adding to the surreal nature of the experience.
Ultimately, both Lisa Marie and Riley Keough sensed that it was time for Benjamin’s body to be moved from the house. Riley Keough wrote that she felt her brother’s spirit communicating that it was “getting weird,” which helped them decide to lay him to rest outside of the home.
Benjamin Keough and Lisa Marie Presley were later interred at Graceland, the iconic estate of Elvis Presley.