20000310

Boy spent three

weeks with

dead mother

GAINES TOWNSHIP, (Michigan): For three weeks a 6-year-old boy tucked himself into bed, poured his own cereal and went out to play, each day passing the body of his mother, who lay on the living room floor covered by a blanket and crib mattress, authorities said.

"A few weeks ago.... he had heard his mother fall and covered her up," Kent County Undersheriff Larry Stelma said on Wednesday. "We are assuming that he thought she was sick or had fallen asleep."

Authorities, alerted by concerned school officials, went to the family's apartment on Tuesday in this comfortable Grand Rapids suburb.

Officers found the badly decomposed body of the child's mother.

The little boy, who was dirty and hungry but otherwise in good health, is in state custody until authorities officially confirm his mother's identity and notify relatives.

Preliminary autopsy results suggest no foul play was involved. Officials did not release any names, but say it appears the boy and his mother were the only two people living in the apartment.

The case is not the first of its kind in the United States, Among recent cases, authorities in Memphis, Tennesee, discovered a 9-year-old boy who had been living with his mother's corpse for a month. Authorities said he did not call for help, for fear he would be placed in foster care.ÑAP