A Bronx woman with an apparent history of mental illness and her severely autistic young son were found 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, police and sources said.
The woman, 38, and her 8-year-old son were declared dead at the scene. The woman’s young daughter was rescued and brought to a hospital in stable condition, authorities said.
It’s unclear when the woman, whom police said was wheelchair-bound, and her son died or how long the girl had been inside — but neighbors complained of a foul odor that smelled 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 horrifying scene until about 8:30 p.m. Friday, when the dead woman’s older daughter arrived to check on the family at the behest of her worried grandfather, and called 911.
The dead mom’s older daughter discovered the house of horrors at East 231st Street in Wakefield around 8:30 p.m. Friday, calling 911 to report the deaths, noting a stench emanating from the “trashed” home and the insects, police and sources said.
The grim scene came to light because the children’s grandfather, who had not heard from the family, had asked her older daughter to check on them.
There were no obvious signs of trauma to the mom and son, cops said. The city Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will determine the cause of death.
One neighbor said he rarely saw the little boy.
Residents had been complaining of a foul odor for about a month, he added, but “nobody did anything.”
“The landlord hadn’t done wellness checks, people had called, neighbors called,” he said. “It just smells like rat infested … the exterminator said the same thing – the smell is similar to rats and even death.”
The mother had an Administration for Children’s Services case pending against her, police sources said.
She was arrested in June 2021 on child abandonment charges after she was allegedly caught acting erratically, swinging her then infant daughter around in a stroller and lighting a wig on fire in front of a commercial strip on White Plains Road, the sources said.
When cops arrived, they found her walking away from the child. The case was later sealed, authorities said.
“She wanted to commit suicide with the boy,” the neighbor, who gave her name as Sharlene, said.
Another time, the mom proclaimed, “I am going to kill everybody on the block,” Sharlene, a home health aide, recalled.
Her own son called her at work Friday to tell her what had happened.
“‘Mummy, Lisa killed herself,’” Sharlene said he told her. “I could not sleep.”
“It hurts because it’s somebody who you know, somebody who you see, somebody who you were close to, and now it’s gonna be when you come outside, you see no one there and that’s gonna hurt,” she said. “I hope the little girl is going to be okay.”
https://nypost.com/2025/04/19/us-news/nyc-mom-son-found-dead-inside-squalid-bronx-apartment-cops/
