22 - 28 December 2016
MALLORCA
YOUR PAPER, YOUR VOICE, YOUR OPINION
Deathly vigil Boys stayed with body of dead mother By Matthew Elliott Three young children spent several days living with the body of their dead mother after she died in the family’s Palma apartment. The eldest, an 11-yearo l d b o y, e v e n t u a l l y w e n t out onto the streets and asked a city gardener for help. The gardener went with the boy and entered the Son Cladera apartment. He found the two
younger brothers, aged 10 and five, and the body of their deceased mother. The man quickly called Local Police who removed the body of the 40-year-old African immigrant and took all three boys to Son Espases hospital. The boys are being held in the hospital’s pediatric e m e rg e n c y w i n g . A n y symptoms they may have cannot be made public as they are minors. The boys reportedly told
Pediatric area of Son Espases Hospital.
the gardener that they had no idea what was wrong with their mother, only that s h e w o u l d n ’t w a k e u p . They also told social workers they had not eaten in days. Preliminary investigations have found no signs of violence but detectives are on stand-by as doctors await the results of a full post-mortem examination. It has now been revealed that Mallorcan social services were aware of the
WWW.EUROWEEKLYNEWS.COM Copyright Antonio Fernandez-Coca
ISSUE NO. 1642
family but the woman had refused help of any kind. Officials had also been trying to deal with the fact that her sons had not been to school since September. E ff o r t s a r e n o w b e i n g made to trace the boys’ father in case he is able to look after them. Fina Santiago, Social Aff a i r s m i n i s t e r, e x p r e s s e d his sadness that such a situation could be allowed to unfold “in a developed country.”