Mum & 'bishop' arrested for letting kids live with corpse
May 13, 2008
TWO children and their mother in the US lived for about two months with the decaying body of a 90-year-old woman in the toilet of their home's only bathroom.
They had done this on the advice of a religious 'superior' who claimed the corpse would come back to life, authorities said on Friday.
The authorities made the gruesome discovery after they came looking for Mrs Magdeline Alvina, the dead woman.
Her sister had made a complaint saying that she had not seen her for some time.
The children - a 15-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy - cried when they were ordered out because of the stench from thebody.
The children were in foster care on Friday. Their mother, Mrs Tammy Lewis, and self-described 'bishop' Alan Bushey remained in custody on felony counts of being a party to causing mental harm to achild.
'It's a sad case, and we'll continue to investigate it and try to ascertain just what occurred up there,' Juneau County Sheriff Brent Oleson said.
He said he had no further information on Mr Bushey's religious affiliation.
After they arrived, sheriff officials were let into the house reluctantly.
When the deputy opened the last closed door, she smelled 'decaying matter' and noticed something piled on what appeared to be a toilet. Lewis told her it was Mrs Middlesworth's body, the complaint said.
Lewis told the deputy that Mrs Middlesworth had died about two months earlier, but that God told her Mrs Middlesworth would come to life if she prayed hard enough.
AP
Source:
http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/st...64612,00.html?