Relatives of the woman accused of abandoning her three kids and leaving another child dead in her apartment for a year, is now speaking out.
Gloria Williams’s cousins Christie Smith and Yasmin Creag say she was constantly moving from place to place and always gave vague answers to questions about the children.
Over the weekend three siblings age 15, 10 and 7 were rescued in Houston and told police their brother had been deceased about a year.
The oldest child, a 15-year-old boy, called 911 on Sunday and said he and his two younger siblings, ages 10 and 7, had been living alone for months. He said his 9-year-old brother died about a year earlier and his body was still inside their West Houston apartment.
Deputies found the teenager and his two siblings living alone in the apartment. Harris County Sheriff, Ed Gonzalez, confirmed that the other child’s skeletal remains were located.
According to KPRC Houston:
“I have seen the news article about the kids. You know, when you see things like that, you think like ‘wow,’ you know. But I never thought it was her,” said Christie Smith, a cousin of the mother.
Harris County deputies said the 8-year-old boy was beaten and his corpse was left to decompose for 11 months inside the apartment.
Family members said Gloria had a total of six children ranging in age from 7 to 17. Two of the four boys living in the abandoned apartment, including Kendrick, who was killed had autism. Gloria no longer had parental rights over her two girls, according to the relatives.
“My momma has been asking for Kendrick since the day he was born and she kept telling her no. We knew that with all of these kids, eventually, she was not going to be able to be the best parent she could be,” Creag said.
The mother of the children, 35-year-old Gloria Williams, has been charged with injury to a child and tampering with evidence. Williams’ 31-year-old boyfriend Brian Coulter is facing a murder charge for the death of the 8-year-old boy whose body was found inside the abandoned apartment.
Children’s Protective Services is seeking emergency custody of all three siblings found abandoned. They said there was no prior investigation of the family.
Gonzalez also shared the children had been “living in pretty deplorable conditions.” Adding that is it “very disturbing.”
“It appears that the remains had been there for an extended period of time,” Gonzalez stated to reporters. “And I emphasise extended.”
“We definitely want some answers for these children,” Gonzalez said. “It appears that they were caring, basically fending for each other, which is very sad … I think the older sibling was basically doing the best he could to take care of the others.”
The grandmother and cousins said Gloria was estranged from the family, very closed off, and only reached out for money.
“The last time I have physically seen her is when we had Christmas over here in 2019. (It was him (Coulter) and all the kids,” said Gladys Smith, Gloria’s aunt.
“Every three to six months she has a new phone number,” said Creag. “Every three to six months she’s moving apartments, so we never have a solid address for her.”
The relatives said they think Gloria was paying for the rent at the abandoned apartment with money she was receiving from the government.
“We factor she paid the rent with the disability checks that she gained from the kids, and that’s all we can figure,” Creag said.
Creag and all the relatives said they will fight for custody of Gloria’s surviving three boys.
Right now, they want to see the children heal from the trauma they’ve endured for months.
“They may never get over this,” Robinson said. “They need the therapy to get them through it.”
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