The skeletal remains of a child and three surviving siblings who appeared to have been abandoned were found inside an apartment in the Houston area.
The children’s mother and her boyfriend were located, questioned and released without charges being filed, police said on Monday.
The plight of the children came to light on Sunday afternoon when one of them, a 15-year-old, called the Harris county sheriff’s office and said his nine-year-old brother had been dead for a year and the body was inside the apartment, the office said in a statement.
Deputies found the teenager and two siblings aged 10 and seven living alone in the apartment, said the sheriff, Ed Gonzalez, adding that the other child’s skeletal remains were located.
“It appears that the remains had been there for an extended period of time,” Gonzalez told reporters. “And I emphasise extended.”
In tweets on Monday morning, Gonzalez said: “It is believed the parents have not lived in the unit for several months. The mother of the children and her boyfriend were located late last night … interviewed and released. [Child Protective Services] is assisting with the children. Our investigation remains ongoing. No charges have been filed.”
Gonzalez said the investigation was being conducted by sheriff’s office homicide, child abuse and crime scene units.
Speaking on Sunday, Gonzalez said the children had been “living in pretty deplorable conditions” which he said were “very disturbing”.
“We definitely want some answers for these children,” he said. “It appears that they were caring, basically fending for each other, which is very sad … I think the older sibling was basically doing the best he could to take care of the others.
“And again … it appears the skeletal remains have been there for an extended period of time. So just connecting all the dots at this point it seems that [the children] were in there while the body was deteriorating.”
The younger children appeared malnourished and had physical injuries, Gonzalez said. All three were taken to hospital to be assessed and treated.
Gonzalez said: “There appears to be some food, so we don’t know where they were getting that food or who was leaving it.”
He added: “The initial information that we’ve gotten leads us to believe that this isn’t just something that’s been unfolding over a period of months, but it’s been perhaps as long as the entire year or many, many months. So we’ll tighten up that timeline, but that’s why we need some answers. These kids deserve answers, and the public should never tolerate anything like this.”
In a statement on Monday, the Texas department of family and protective services said it was seeking emergency custody of the 15-year-old and his two siblings “to ensure the safety of the children”.
The agency also said: “Child Protective Services does have history with the family, but there was no active CPS investigation at the time the children were discovered alone in their apartment.”
Neighbours expressed shock and disbelief. One, Kayla Williams, told the Houston Chronicle she had two children but did not plan to tell them what happened.
“I don’t need to put this in their heads,” she said. “This is crazy.”
