Texas couple arrested after remains of woman’s 8-year-old son found with siblings in home

Three surviving but apparently abandoned siblings were also found inside the Houston-area apartment along with the boy's skeletal remains.

A woman and her boyfriend were arrested Tuesday in the death of the woman’s 8-year-old son, whose skeletal remains were found inside a Houston-area apartment with three surviving but apparently abandoned siblings, officials said.

Brian W. Coulter, the 32-year-old boyfriend of the dead child’s mother, was charged Tuesday with murder. The mother, Gloria Y. Williams, 36, was charged with felony injury to a child by omission, and tampering with evidence (human corpse), Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez tweeted Tuesday night.

Both were booked into the Harris County Jail without bond pending appearances before a magistrate. It was not immediately clear if the two had attorneys. Gonzalez said more charges are possible.

The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences in Houston, which conducts all autopsies in the county, listed the primary cause of death as “homicidal violence with multiple blunt force injuries.”

Michele Arnold, a spokeswoman for the institute, said her agency could not provide additional details.

Deputy Thomas Gilliland, a spokesman for the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, also said he could not immediately provide any more information because his agency was still investigating the death.

One of the surviving siblings, a 15-year-old, called the sheriff’s department Sunday and told authorities his brother had been dead for a year and the body was inside the apartment, according to the law enforcement agency.

Deputies found the teen and two other siblings, ages 10 and 7, living alone in the apartment, Gonzalez said. The 15-year-old told authorities his parents had not lived in the apartment for several months.