Abuse Child Washington
4 Juvenile Bodies Found in Washington D.C. Home
10th Jan, 2008 - 2:39am
Did the mother killed these children? She was at the home when the police arrived and found the bodies who seem to have been there for the past two weeks!
WASHINGTON — The decomposing bodies of four young people were found Wednesday by U.S. Marshals delivering an eviction notice, and a woman who answered the door was taken into custody for questioning.
Investigators were trying to determine whether the woman was related to the four victims, who had been dead at least two weeks, authorities said. Her name was not released.
"She was apparently calm throughout," U.S. Marshals Service spokesman Cole Barnhart said.
Mayor Adrian Fenty said the condition of the bodies made it difficult to identify them. "It is going to take scientific tests run by the chief medical examiner's office," he said.
Police Chief Cathy Lanier said the bodies appeared to be of juveniles ranging in age from 5 to 18. Authorities were investigating how and when they died.
The case may not be ruled a homicide until the medical examiner determines the cause of death, police said. Lanier said there were no signs of forced entry into the home.
The bodies were found upstairs in the southeast Washington apartment, part of a block of virtually identical apartment houses near Bolling Air Force Base in one of this city's poorest areas, authorities said.
Larry Jones, who lives next door, said that a woman and two or three children live at the home but that he had not seen them since the summer. The children appeared healthy at the time, he said.
Jones added that in recent months he had noticed a "strange odor" coming through his vent.
"We thought it was probably dead mice in the vent or something," he said, adding that he had talked to the landlord about it.
D.C. Council member Marion Barry, who represents the neighborhood where the bodies were found, questioned why no one had reported the four missing.
"Somebody should have known that some people were not in school," said Barry, the former mayor.
D.C. Schools spokeswoman Mafara Hobson said none of the children thought to be living in the home was currently enrolled in the school system. One child at that address had attended Stuart-Hobson Elementary School but withdrew in 2006 as a fifth-grader, she said...
Source 7a