In what authorities are calling an incredible case of survival, a 2-year-old boy managed to fend for himself for 10 days alone in an apartment of a public housing building — with his mother’s murdered body in the apartment with him the entire time.
The heartbreaking incident took place earlier this year in Ottawa, with details just leaking out this week. As the Province reported, the toddler was discovered during a fire alarm inspection in an apartment building. Authorities said the door was unlocked and a maintenance workers walked in to see if the residents had left.
What the worker found was the 2-year-old boy alone alongside the body of his dead mother. Police said that the 35-year-old woman, who was not identified, had been killed by a man named Mohamed S. Barkhadle. The murder took place 10 days before the woman’s body was found, leaving the 2-year-old all alone to fend for himself.
A neighbor named Marcy Chabot said she heard signs of a disturbance on March 11, with banging noises coming from the apartment. But Chabot said that the woman frequently had problems and often banged on the wall of the apartment, so she didn’t think anything of it. Police had been called to the apartment several times before her death, the neighbor noted.
But police now believe that Chabot heard the woman’s murder. The home was unusually quiet in the days that followed the disturbance, Chabot said.
By the time the 2-year-old was finally discovered by a maintenance man, he was wearing a soiled diaper and appeared to be in shock.
So was the person who discovered the boy.
“The guy came running out, and he was freaking. He seemed to be in shock,” Chabot said (via Fox 61 ).
Chabot said neighbors helped to clean the boy up and bring him some food. She noted that the toddler lived fairly independently, and could get food and drink for himself and turn on the television.
The toddler’s story of survival has gone viral, garnering headlines across the globe, and was reminiscent of another story of a lost toddler with a happier ending. Earlier in the month, video captured a bus driver spotting a toddler walking alone near a busy street. As Inside Edition reported, the driver pulled over and helped the boy until police could arrive and help the boy find his home again.
In that case, it turned out that the toddler had woken before his family and slipped out of the home unnoticed.
Video: Bus driver helps 2-year-old boy lost in Milwaukee https://t.co/8ONc6qM7EH pic.twitter.com/xsN8cGdGMm
— RozTriche (@RosTriche) July 18, 2017
A hero bus driver helps a 2-year-old found wandering alone along his route. https://t.co/8KFYfaB1mV pic.twitter.com/9M1sdjUZkp
— Inside Edition (@InsideEdition) July 18, 2017
There was no update on the condition of the 2-year-old left alone for 10 days with his dead mother, but he is believed to have fully recovered.
[Featured Image by barol16/iStock]
