Barrier tape in the USA (symbol image)
Photo: Michael Reynolds/ dpa
Texas police have arrested a woman who for weeks forced her 11-year-old daughter to live with her father's body.
She explained to the police that she had not reported the child's father's death because she was afraid of being thrown out of the apartment - because the man shouldn't have been there.
According to US media reports, the mother and daughter lived with the man's decomposing body for three or four weeks in the isolated village of Electra.
Neighbors eventually informed local police chief Terry Wooten about the stench and masses of flies coming out of an open window in the apartment.
After unsuccessful knocking, the officers finally forcibly gained access to the apartment.
There, in the hallway, they came across the man's body covered with garbage bags.
The police described the apartment as "uninhabitable".
It was full of rubbish and had no running water.
The girl had to be taken to the hospital because she was covered in insect bites, several of which had become infected.
An arrest warrant was issued against the woman for, among other things, child endangerment and falsification of evidence.
Her daughter is being cared for by the child protection agency.
cop/AFP
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