Houston mom & boyfriend arrested for abandoning kids & sibling death at apartment. Gloria Y. Williams & Brian W. Coulter face series of charges with mother previously arrested for child neglect.
A Texas woman and her boyfriend have been arrested in connection to the discovery of three abandoned children along with their deceased brother whose skeletal remains were found at a Houston apartment on October 26.
Gloria Y. Williams faces charges of injury to a child by omission, failure to provide medical care, and failure to provide adequate supervision along with tampering with evidence. The mother’s boyfriend, Brian W. Coulter faces a murder charge following the ‘homicide’ death of one of the four brothers.
The charges which were announced on Tuesday, three days after authorities discovered a 15, 10, and 7-year-old living alone, with the rotting corpse of their eight-year-old brother.
The macabre discovery was made after the 15-year-old called 911. An autopsy on the body of the eight-year-old revealed he died due to homicide last year. All the while, the children’s mother Williams lived just 15 minutes away, with Coulter in Westchase.
The 15-year-old has been fending for himself and his brothers’ thanks to the generosity of neighbors at West Oaks Apartments, none of whom had a clue about their condition.
Houston abused children grandmother: “I would have adopted them.”
#GloriaYWilliams and #BrianWCoulter are a disgrace
Dads can’t be around their kids but time and time again they get harmed by a stranger at the other house. The best interest of the child narrative is a lie! pic.twitter.com/ybFAy0t1Jy
— Prophet Reuben M (@MinisterReubenM) October 27, 2021
The elder child finally snapped a year after being alone, setting the stage for his mother’s arrest. In a statement on October 24, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said, ‘Very horrific situation here, very tragic. I’ve been in this business for a long time and I’ve never heard of a scenario like this, it really caught me by surprise.’
The four children were reportedly left to fend for themselves at an apartment by Williams, who occasionally made visits to bring noodles, snacks, and drinks. About six months ago, one of the neighbors, Erica Chapman started providing food as well. She said that the 15-year-old refused cooked meals, only agreeing to take fruit, pizza, and packaged snacks. Another neighbor, Trevor Thompson revealed the boy was ‘paranoid and feared getting poisoned’.
Both of them were providing the 15-year-old with food for months, completely unaware he had a sibling or a dead body in the next room. Thompson was first alerted to the idea of another child only after the 15-year-old replied, ‘The first pizza we had’ when asked if he liked the pizza Thompson had provided.
‘That made me wonder why would he say, “We”.” However, none of them called the authorities because they were unaware of the severity of the situation. “I didn’t want to push him away by asking questions because I knew he was starving and needed food,’ Chapman said.
Eventually, though, the 15-year-old had enough. Shortly before he called 911 on October 24, he texted Williams and said he ‘could not take it anymore.’ Police arrived at the scene and discovered the 15, 10, and seven-year-old being malnourished, along with the the youngest sibling having broken bones on his face. An autopsy on the body of the eight-year-old revealed he died due to multiple blunt force injuries. It’s unclear how long exactly the child has been dead.
One neighbor noticed a foul odor from the apartment 13 or 14 months ago, which she claims led to several complaints but no action.
A report via the dailymail identified the deceased boy as Kendrick Lee.
Prior child neglect arrests
The mother’s arrest isn’t the first time the woman has been charged for child neglect.
In 2019 and 2020, Gloria Williams was charged twice for failing to enroll her kids in school, but they were subsequently dropped due to the Covid-19 pandemic. They were last enrolled in school in May 2020 according to KPRC. The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services is now seeking custody of the two children. Child Protective Services did note that they have a history with the family but refused to elaborate. They did however confirm there was no active investigation going on at the time of the discovery.
‘We are trying to identify next of kin to determine exactly what happened and how we got to this point,’ Sheriff Gonzalez said. It’s unclear who the biological father of the children is and the man’s whereabouts.
Thomas Gilliland, a spokesman with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, said the circumstances surrounding the case, and why the three boys had been living on their own ‘at least since February,’ remain under investigation.
More details are expected to be made available in the coming days, as the investigation continues.
