The death of a nine-year-old boy whose skeletal remains were found over the weekend inside a Houston apartment that also housed his three hungry brothers has been ruled a homicide.
The Harris County Medical Examiner’s office ruled Tuesday that the unnamed child suffered multiple blunt force injuries that resulted in his death.
It is unknown at this time whether the victim’s mother or her boyfriend, who was interviewed yesterday and released yesterday, will face any charges in relation to the child’s death.
A spokesman for the Harris County Sheriff’s Office wrote in an email to DailyMail.com: ‘Our investigators have made no allegations to date. The findings of the Institute of Forensic Science along with our findings will be presented to the prosecutor if applicable.
According to a report by the victim’s 15-year-old brother, he and his two surviving siblings had been living with her in decomposition in their apartment for a year.
Shortly before calling 911 on Sunday, he texted his mother to tell him he couldn’t take it any more, it surfaced.
The call sparked a series of disturbing revelations, in which three children, aged 15, 10 and 7, were left to fend for themselves for several months, to survive from unsuspecting neighbors. Sharing an apartment, relying on food donations. Decomposing the remains of his sibling – even though his mother and her lover lived just 15 minutes away.
Detectives from the Harris County Sheriff’s Office questioned the couple before being released Monday pending the results of the criminal investigation. child welfare services Texas has also launched an investigation into the horrific search of an apartment complex on the west side of Houston.
Erica Chapman, who lives in Citypark II in West Oaks Apartments, said she was among those feeding the malnourished 15-year-old, not knowing he was living with his two younger brothers.
‘The first time I saw him, he was sleeping on a slide,’ Chapman told KTRK.
Officers from the Harris County Sheriff’s Department are seen above on Sunday afternoon at a Houston apartment complex where three children were found in an unattended state with the dead body of their 9-year-old brother.
The mother of three lived with her boyfriend just 15 minutes away from the apartment complex where her 9-year-old son was found dead.
Investigators also found the mutilated body of a nine-year-old child inside the apartment
Law enforcement officials said the three children were fed by an unidentified neighbor
Chapman said she noticed that the teen’s mother was rarely at home. She was sometimes seen with noodles, snacks and drinks. The abandoned teen would run downstairs to get food and then return to the apartment.
About six months ago, Chapman said she began offering the 15-year-old food, but said she refused to accept cooked food, agreeing only to packaged snacks, fruit, and pizza.
Another neighbor, Trevor Thompson, who was helping the boy, told the station that the child was insane and feared being poisoned.
Thompson said the teen knocked on her door one day, asking to borrow a charger. After that, the neighbor said that she had an affair with the boy and started giving him food.
Both Thompson and Chapman said they didn’t know two young children were living with the 15-year-old.
Thompson recalled that on one occasion he asked the teen if he liked the pizza he had given her.
’ And he asked, “What? We had our first pizza?” Thompson pointed out. ‘ That made me wonder why he’d say, “We.”
Erica Chapman said that she was feeding the 15-year-old boy because his mother rarely came to give him breakfast.
Chapman speculates that the teen may have concealed the existence of his brothers because he was afraid of being convicted, punished by his mother, or separated from his siblings.
Neighbors said they never called officers because they did not understand the gravity of the situation involving the teenager, who was described as calm and intelligent.
“I didn’t want to push him away by asking questions because I knew he was starving and needed food,” Chapman said.
Alif Independent School District told KTRK that in 2019 and 2020, the school district filed truancy papers against the siblings’ mothers as two of them were not attending school. The children were last enrolled in May 2020.
The surviving three siblings were taken to the hospital for treatment. He is said to have been malnourished and injured, and the 7-year-old had broken bones in his face.
The post-mortem of the fourth child is being conducted to ascertain the cause of death.
According to investigators, the 15-year-old said the parents had not been staying at home for months, effectively leaving the children to be alone.
When the police reached the house on Sunday afternoon, the brother’s skeleton was found in the open. KPRC TV informed of.
According to law enforcement officials, the two young boys appeared to be malnourished and were ‘showing signs of bodily injury’.
“It appears they were basically defending each other,” Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez told reporters.
‘The elder brother was doing his best to take care of others.’
Trevor Thompson, who didn’t want to be seen on camera, was also helping the teen. the boy was mad and feared to be poisoned
In an update late Sunday, Gonzalez revealed that the children’s mother and her boyfriend have been traced and interviewed by murder detectives.
On Monday, the sheriff announced that the couple had been released without being arrested or charged with any crime. At this time no explanation was given for the pair’s decision to let go.
In response to a request for comment, a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office wrote in an email to DailyMail.com: ‘This is an active investigation, with charges pending.’
Officials did not say whether they were looking for the children’s biological father.
The sheriff said, ‘Combining all the dots, it looks like they were there while the body was deteriorating.
The HCSO is now investigating to find out the circumstances that led 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 on Monday.
‘Child Protective Services has a family history, but there was no active CPS investigation at the time the children were found alone in their apartment.’
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said a unit was dispatched to conduct a welfare check at the residence after a call was received. body was not hidden
Residents of the area told that the management was making rounds of inspection in the area for the last two weeks.
A neighbor who lives next to the siblings told KTRK that they had no idea that there was anyone in that unit, let alone the children.
The neighbor in the apartment complex told the police station KTRK That she complained for months about the foul smell emanating from the unit, where the shocking discovery was made over the weekend.
She said that 13 or 14 months ago, she noticed a foul smell for the first time at the thought of an abandoned apartment.
The smell was so bad, the woman said, that she would be forced to turn off her air conditioning to prevent it from entering through the vents in her apartment.
The neighbor said he complained about the smell to the building’s management several times, but it was not clear whether anyone had gone to the unit to inspect the siblings’ residence.
Other residents wondered if the children went to school and, if so, why the teacher or administrator did not notice anything unusual.
The children were abandoned by the adults for a long time and were ‘defending for each other’.
Murder investigators are also working on the case along with CPS and child abuse investigators
Police said that the investigation is still in the preliminary stage.
‘Very appalling situation here, very sad. Addressing the media on Sunday evening, Gonzalez said, “I’ve been in this business for a long time and I’ve never heard of a scenario like this, it really surprised me.”
He said, “We are trying to identify the next of kin to determine what exactly happened and how we got to this point… we are going to make sure we do a thorough follow-up. ”
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