In Texas, three children lived for a year with the remains of their deceased brother: their mother abandoned them and did not feed them

The death of a 9-year-old boy, whose body was found in Houston, was ruled a homicide, reports Dailymail.

Photo: Shutterstock

An autopsy revealed that the victim sustained multiple injuries before being left to rot for a year in an apartment with his three starving brothers.

The three brothers and the skeletal remains were found at 3535 Green Crest Drive in Houston after police were asked to conduct a welfare check.

The Harris County Medical Examination revealed that a nine-year-old boy had sustained multiple injuries and died as a result of the murder.

A 15-year-old boy called the emergency services and said that his 9-year-old brother had died a year ago, and his remains are in the room next to him.

The children lived in appalling conditions and were probably left abandoned for several months.

Law enforcement officials said a neighbor brought food to the brothers and charged their mobile phone after the power cut in their home.

The mother of the children and her boyfriend were found and questioned by the police. The charges are pending.

"Combining all the evidence, it appears they were there while the body was decomposing," Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said.

A neighbor first noticed the foul smell from the brothers' apartment 13 or 14 months ago and has repeatedly complained about it.

Murder investigators are also working with Child Protection Services on the case.
The death of a nine-year-old boy, whose remains were found on October 24 in an apartment in Houston, where three starving children also live, was ruled a murder.

The Harris County Forensic Office ruled on Tuesday that the unnamed child suffered multiple injuries that left him dead.

It is currently unknown whether the victim's mother or her friend will be charged with any charges in connection with the child's death. A Harris County Sheriff's Office spokesman said, “To date, our investigators have not filed any charges. The findings of the Institute of Forensic Medicine, along with the results of our investigation, will be presented to the prosecutor. "

According to testimony from the victim's 15-year-old brother, he and the two surviving brothers lived with a decomposing body in their apartment for a year.

Shortly before the teenager called 24 on October 911, he wrote to his mother that he could not take it any longer.

The call led to a series of disturbing discoveries, including that three children, ages 15, 10, and 7, were left to fend for themselves for months, relying on food donations from unsuspecting neighbors next to their decaying remains. brother - despite the fact that their mother and her boyfriend lived only 15 minutes away.

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Detectives from the Harris County Sheriff's Office interrogated the couple before releasing them Monday, pending the results of a criminal investigation. Child protection services in Texas have also begun investigating a gruesome find at a residential complex on the west side of Houston.

Erica Chapman, who lives at CityParc II in West Oaks Apartments, said she was among people feeding an emaciated 15-year-old, unaware that he was living with his two younger brothers.

“When I first saw him, he was sleeping on one of the slides,” Chapman said.

The woman noticed that the teen's mother is rarely at home. Sometimes she came with noodles, snacks and drinks. The teenager ran downstairs to pick up food, and then returned to the apartment.

About six months ago, Chapman began serving food to the 15-year-old, but he refused to accept cooked meals, agreeing to only take packaged snacks, fruit and pizza.

Trevor Thompson, another neighbor who helped the boy, told the radio station that the child was paranoid and fearful of poisoning.

Thompson said that one day a teenager knocked on his door and asked him to borrow a charger. After that, he contacted the boy and started offering him food. The neighbors had no idea that the 15-year-old had two youngest children.

Thompson recalled that he once asked a teenager if he liked the pizza he gave him. “And he asked:“ What? The first pizza we ate? " This surprised the man, because the boy did not mean only himself.

Chapman suggested that the teenager may have been hiding the existence of his brothers because he feared being accused, punished by his mother, or separated from his brothers.

The neighbors never called the authorities because they did not realize the seriousness of the situation with the teenager, who was described as quiet and reserved.

“I didn’t want to push him away with more questions, but I knew he was starving and needed food,” Chapman said.

According to Alif Independent School District, in 2019 and 2020, the school district filed truancy papers against the brothers' mother because two of them did not attend school. Children were last enrolled in school in May 2020.

All three surviving brothers were taken to hospital for treatment. They were reportedly emaciated and injured, and a 7-year-old boy had broken bones in his face.

The 15-year-old said the parents had not lived at home for several months, effectively leaving their children alone to be alone.

When the police arrived at the house on Sunday afternoon, they found the remains of his brother on the street.

Law enforcement officials said the two younger boys looked emaciated and "showed signs of bodily harm."

“They seemed to be mostly protecting each other,” Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez told reporters. “Big brother did everything he could to take care of others.”

In Sunday's update, Gonzalez revealed that the kids' mother and her boyfriend have been found and questioned by homicide detectives.

On Monday, the sheriff announced that the couple had been released without being arrested or charged with any crime. No explanation has been provided for the decision to release the couple at the moment.

The authorities did not say if they were looking for the biological father of the children.

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The HCSO is currently investigating the circumstances leading to the death of the minor and how long the children were alone.

“To ensure the safety of the children, the Department of Family and Protective Services is seeking emergency custody of the three boys,” the agency said in a statement Monday.

"Child Welfare Services have a family history, but at the time the children were found alone in the apartment, the CPS did not actively investigate."

Residents of the area stated that the authorities have been conducting inspection rounds in the area over the past couple of weeks.

A neighbor who lives next door to the brothers claims that she had no idea that someone was living in this apartment, let alone children.

A neighbor in the apartment complex said that for months she had been complaining about an unpleasant smell coming from an apartment where a shocking discovery was made over the weekend.

She said that 13 or 14 months ago, she first noticed a disgusting smell coming from what she thought was an abandoned apartment.

According to the woman, the smell was so strong that she had to turn off the air conditioner to prevent it from entering her apartment through the vents. She complained to the building management about the smell on several occasions, but it is unclear if anyone came to the apartment where the brothers lived to inspect her.

Police said the investigation is still at a preliminary stage.

“It’s a very terrible situation, very tragic. I've been in this business a long time and I've never heard of anything like this, it really took me by surprise,” Gonzalez said.

"We are trying to identify next of kin to determine exactly what happened and how we got to this point... We are going to conduct a thorough follow-up investigation," he added.

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