Whimpering toddler locked in room for hours with dead mom in next room, Texas cops say
A whimpering 2-year-old boy was locked in a room while his mother was dead in the next room, Texas cops said.
Though he was not physically harmed, he was left alone for about four hours, Houston police said.
Police were called to the Harris County home at 8:41 a.m. for a welfare check. They knocked on the door and listened for movement but heard nothing.
Houston police were called again at 12:43 p.m. When they arrived at the home a second time, the suspect’s daughter met them at the home.
Officers went to the second floor where they found bedroom doors locked using wire secured to the doorknob and the banister, police said.
“Even if she was alive, she wouldn’t have been able to open the door from the inside,” Assistant Chief of Houston Police Patricia Cantu said.
They heard a whimper from one of the rooms, which prompted police to cut the wires to find the 2-year-old in one room and the deceased mother in the next, Cantu said.
Police said the woman appeared to have been stabbed and beaten, and an autopsy will determine her cause of death.
The suspect was the mother’s boyfriend, his daughter told police when they were called to the home a second time.
“We know the suspect called his daughter to let her know that he killed his girlfriend,” Cantu said. She added that police did not have that information until they were called the second time.
The daughter told police the mother’s boyfriend had gone to Louisiana and was staying with family, Cantu said. Louisiana police were at the home prior to the boyfriend’s arrival.
The suspect died by suicide after arriving at his family’s house at 11:45 a.m., Houston police said. The identities of the mother and boyfriend are being confirmed by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences.
“All these scenes are very, very tragic, especially when it’s somebody you’re in a relationship (with),” Cantu said. “When you’re trusting somebody to care for you and this happens.”
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