A 5-year-old child found wandering alone at a New Jersey apartment complex in the middle of the night led police to the body of his slain mother.
Someone at the complex on Knickerbocker Road in Dumont called 911 about 12:20 a.m. Tuesday and told police they saw a small child straggling through the courtyard.
Authorities quickly arrived and found the child, then encountered an aunt who said her sister had a fight with her boyfriend and now was not answering the phone.
Deputies entered the residence to carry out a welfare check and discovered 36-year-old Michelle Burns stabbed in the neck with a kitchen knife.
Authorities said the preschooler was left behind at the crime scene and somehow made his way outside the apartment.
Credit: Photos courtesy Bergen County Prosecutor's Office and GoFundMe
Credit: Photos courtesy Bergen County Prosecutor's Office and GoFundMe
“Officers entered Ms. Burns’ apartment to conduct a welfare check and found her deceased,” said Bergen County Prosecutor Mike Musella in a statement released to the media. “She had been stabbed in the neck with a kitchen knife. The Dumont Police Department then notified the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit and Bergen County Sheriff’s Department Bureau of Criminal Investigations.”
Through a neighbor, police learned that the woman lived at the apartment with her boyfriend, Jeffrey Daniels, 36, and that the two fought all the time, according to WABC News 7 in New York City.
The woman who initially called police also said she overheard the couple arguing the same evening, according to NJ.com.
The neighbor told police that Daniels had earlier asked for a ride to the hospital, but the neighbor called police instead.
Daniels was later found with the couple’s two younger children — an 18-month-old and a 6-month old — in nearby Closter, where police saw him knocking on someone’s front door.
He was arrested and charged with murder, weapons offenses and endangering the welfare of a child, according to the Dumont Police Department.
None of the three children were physically harmed.
Daniels is being held without bond at the Bergen County Jail pending his first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack, New Jersey.
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