A 3-year-old boy was found alone in a South Florida apartment days after his parents died in an apparent murder-suicide, authorities said on August 27.
Police announced they were investigating a domestic-related incident at a home in Hialeah, just north of Miami, after receiving a 911 call from the boy’s aunt saying she hadn’t heard from her sister in days.
When responding officers arrived at the scene Tuesday night, they located the bodies of a man and a woman, later identified as 28-year-old Clifford Renard Murray III and his 27-year-old girlfriend, Rosemary Gutierrez, reported Miami Fox affiliate WSVN.
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Investigators believe Murray fatally shot Gutierrez before turning the gun on himself at some point over the weekend.
A young boy, described by police as the couple’s son, was also found in the apartment. The child was unharmed but visibly scared, WSVN reported.
He was "dehydrated and doing his needs there with the bodies that were decomposing," one neighbor said. The child was taken to a nearby hospital as a precaution. It’s not immediately clear how many days the boy was left by himself inside the unit, but the victim’s sister told police she hadn’t seen Gutierrez since Saturday morning.
According to Hialeah Police Lt. Eddie Rodriguez, the sister knocked on the apartment’s door around 6 p.m. Tuesday to check on the family’s well-being. She said she could hear a baby crying, but nobody answered the door.
That’s when she called 911, Rodriguez said.
Police and firefighters arrived at the scene and forced their way inside the apartment.
There, they found the bodies of Murray and Gutierrez as well as their unharmed son.
"We’re still in the process of interviewing maybe neighbors, someone else. We still need to check cellphone usage and things like that, so we can have a better understanding of when the incident occurred," Rodriguez told NBC Miami. "But obviously the child was inside of the home at the time that this occurred, so for us right now, our priority is going to be the child."
The boy is currently in the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families, Rodriguez said Wednesday morning.
—Muri Assunção, New York Daily News (TNS)
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Note: If you or any of your loved ones are struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can always reach out to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling 988. They are available 24/7 by phone or online chat.
