Mother Fails to Bury Dead Son, Says She Couldn’t Bear to Part From Him
A grieving mother who couldn’t bear to bury her 8-year-old son left him decomposing in his bedroom for nearly three months after he died, police said.
The remains of Jerome Durant Jr. were discovered Wednesday in his bed with a wheelchair beside it. The boy suffered from cerebral palsy.
Veronica Joann Jones, 31, apparently left the corpse behind after she moved from her townhouse with her two young daughters last month, police said.
“She just couldn’t bear leaving the child and didn’t want to go through with the burial and the funeral,” said police spokesman Sgt. Stephen Doarnberger. “She couldn’t bear to part with him, so she kept him in the home.”
An autopsy completed Thursday could not determine the cause of death, Doarnberger said. There were no signs of abuse, and no charges have been filed against the mother.
Neighbors and friends said it was no secret the boy died in July, but they assumed he had been buried.
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