Yesterday, police in Union Township made a startling discovery: A woman had died at least four days earlier—leaving her four-year-old to fend for himself. And the child tried to care for her.
The Star-Ledger reports, "She was still in her bed, in the upstairs garden apartment with a brick facade and the dry lawn out front. He rubbed lotion on her fragile skin. The boy, all of 4-and-a-half years old, likely called on her to get up, feed and dress him."
Police think the victim, who was apparently in her 30s, died of natural causes. The cops had been called because maintenance crews at the apartment complex noticed a "foul odor" coming from the home.
The child seemed malnourished and dehydrated, but police described him a "spunky." The boy told them that his fingers hurt—he made a police statement saying, "There’s plenty of food in the refrigerator, but I just can’t open it."
The apartment may have belonged to the child's grandmother—the Star-Ledger suggests the mother and boy came from New York to care for the grandmother, but when the grandmother broke her hip, she moved into another facility. A neighbor said the mother didn't seem well, "I know she was sick. I haven’t seen the lady since January."
Police are trying to locate the grandmother and another relative in Brooklyn. A neighbor told WCBS 2, "Very sorry for this boy and this lady — very, very sorry. For this boy, that’s a tragedy."
