A Bronx woman with an apparent history of mental illness and her severely autistic young son were discovered dead in their apartment, with “bugs crawling on” the child’s body and his 4-year-old sister, who had been “screaming” for days, trapped inside, according to police and sources.
The woman, 38, and her eight-year-old son were pronounced dead on the scene. Authorities reported that the woman’s young daughter was rescued and transported to a hospital in stable condition.
It is unclear when the woman, who police said was wheelchair-bound, and her son died, or how long the girl had been inside, but neighbors reported a foul odor smelling like “death” emanating from the home for weeks.
Despite numerous complaints from other residents at the East 231st Street building in Wakefield, no one discovered the horrific scene until about 8:30 p.m. Friday, when the deceased woman’s older daughter arrived to check on the family at the request of her worried grandfather and called 911.
The deceased mother’s older daughter discovered the house of horrors on East 231st Street in Wakefield around 8:30 p.m. Friday, calling 911 to report the deaths and noticing a stench emanating from the “trashed” home and the insects, according to police and sources.
The bleak scene was revealed when the children’s grandfather, who had not heard from the family, asked her older daughter to check on them.
Police said the mother and son showed no obvious signs of trauma. The city’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will determine the cause of death.
One neighbor stated that he rarely saw the little boy.
“I have seen her going in and out with the girl,” said Eric Perez, who lived above the tragic family.
Residents had complained about the foul odor for about a month, he said, but “nobody did anything.”
“The landlord had not done wellness checks, people had called, neighbors called,” he told me. “It smells like a rat infestation.” The exterminator stated the same thing: the smell is similar to rats and even death.
According to police sources, the mother was facing a case with the Administration for Children’s Services.
She was arrested in June 2021 on child abandonment charges after allegedly acting erratically, swinging her then-infant daughter around in a stroller and setting fire to a wig in front of a commercial strip on White Plains Road, according to sources.
When police arrived, they discovered her walking away from the child. Authorities said the case was later sealed.
The mother appeared suicidal, according to one neighbor, who identified the deceased as Lisa and claimed she went to the building’s rooftop with her son a few years ago with apparently fatal intent.
“She wanted to commit suicide with the boy,” the neighbor, Sharlene, explained.
Sharlene, a home health aide, recalled another incident in which the mother declared, “I am going to kill everyone on the block.”
Her own son called her at work on Friday to explain what had happened.
“‘Mummy, Lisa killed herself,'” Sharlene recalled him telling her. “I could not sleep.”
“It hurts because it is somebody who you know, somebody who you see, somebody who you were close to, and now it is going to be when you come outside, you see no one there and that is going to hurt,” she told me. “I hope the little girl is going to be okay.”