Three abandoned children and the skeletal remains of their 9-year-old younger brother were found Sunday in Houston.
The Harris County Sheriff's Office received a call this weekend from a 15-year-old boy, the oldest of all, who said that his brother's body was in the room next to his, according to NBC News, citing the local authority.
The children were 7, 10 and 15 years old and were abandoned, without their parents, "for a few months and even a year,
" Sheriff Ed Gonzalez told the local newspaper The Houston Chronicle.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez described the situation as "heartbreaking." Capture via NBC News
Gonzalez described the situation as "
heartbreaking
" and indicated that the minors lived in
"deplorable conditions
" and that the eldest was the one in charge of taking care of and feeding the others.
"
We don't know where they got the food from or who left it for them
," Gonzalez told NBC News.
The housing complex is less than a mile from Miller Intermediate School and Albright Middle School, but it is unclear if any of the children were enrolled in the school.
Authorities located the children's mother and her boyfriend and are questioning them.
Their names have not yet been made public.
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