A mother from Texas (United States) and her boyfriend have been charged after authorities discovered three young siblings abandoned in a house with their brother’s decomposing body, police said Tuesday.
Brian W. Coulter, 31, has been charged with murder in the death of an 8-year-old – who died in 2020 – and whose remains were found inside the Houston, Texas home, said Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez in a tweet. Sheriff’s deputies made the gruesome discovery on Sunday when they found three children – 15, 10 and 7 – and the child’s corpse.
“I had never heard of a scenario like this. It really took me by surprise,” Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said at a press conference on Sunday.
According to CNN affiliate KTRK, the Harris County medical examiner determined that the child suffered multiple blunt injuries, resulting in his death by homicide.
In a press release, the sheriff’s office said the 15-year-old had called authorities and said his 9-year-old brother had been dead for a year and his body was in the room next to his bedroom . The teenager said his parents had not lived in the apartment for several months.
The two youngest children were malnourished
“It looks like they were there as the body deteriorated,” Gonzalez said. Investigators found the uncovered body in the apartment, Gonzalez said. He didn’t know how or when the child died. “It appears that the remains have been there for an extended period of time, and I insist on the duration,” he said. When asked if he meant weeks, he replied “much longer than that”.
Gonzalez said it looks like the 15-year-old took care of his younger siblings as best he could. Adding that the children lived in “rather deplorable conditions.”
The two youngest children appeared to be malnourished and showed signs of physical injuries, the sheriff’s office said. All three were taken to hospital for treatment.
“Our specialist prosecutors continue to work with the sheriff’s deputies as this horror is under full investigation,” spokesman Dane Schiller said in an email to CNN. The cause of the child’s death is under investigation.
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