Mother, boyfriend charged over violent death of eight-year-old boy in Houston, Texas

Couple in US are arrested over the death of woman's eight-year-old child

A woman and her boyfriend are in custody and facing serious charges after the death of an eight-year-old boy whose skeletal remains were found inside a Texas apartment on Sunday.

WARNING: This story contains graphic information about minors. 

Police said the boy's remains were found along with his three surviving siblings, who appeared to have been abandoned.

The children's mother, Gloria Williams, and her boyfriend, Brian Coulter, were arrested on Tuesday.

Mr Coulter, 31, has been charged with murder while Ms Williams, 35, was charged with felony injury to a child by omission, and tampering with evidence (human corpse), Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said.

Sheriff Gonzalez said more charges might be laid.

The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences in Houston — which conducts all autopsies in the county — listed the primary cause of death as "homicidal violence with multiple blunt force injuries".

One of the surviving siblings, a 15-year-old, called the sheriff's department on Sunday and told authorities his brother had been dead for a year, according to police.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, second from left, says two people have been arrested over the death of a young boy in Houston, Texas. (AP: Houston Chronicle/Mark Mulligan)

Deputies found the teen and two other siblings, aged 10 and seven, living alone in the apartment, Sheriff Gonzalez said.

The 15-year-old told authorities his parents had not lived in the apartment for several months.

Mr Gonzalez said it appeared that the surviving children were "fending for each other".

Their apartment did not have any power and a neighbour had helped the children by charging a phone for them and buying them food, according to Deputy Thomas Gilliland, a spokesman for the Harris County Sheriff's Office.

He said investigators were still trying to determine why no-one in the apartment complex had noticed anything unusual.

The three surviving children were taken to a hospital to be assessed and treated.

They last attended school in May, 2020, according to Craig Eichhorn, a spokesman for the local school district.

However, they did not return for the 2020–2021 school year and school officials had attempted an unsuccessful home visit in September, 2020, Mr Eichhorn said.

AP/ABC