4-year-old girl trapped in apartment with dead mom and brother for two weeks
A four-year-old girl in New York was trapped alone in an apartment with her dead mother and brother for at least two weeks, surviving only through chocolate.
The New York Post reported that Promise Cotton was stuck with Lisa Cotton, 38, and Nazir Millien, 8, before relatives found them.
Sources believe that Lisa, who had suffered from asthma, may have died from cardiac arrest.
Millien, meanwhile, may have starved to death. He was said to be born prematurely and had a feeding tube.
According to a neighbor named Sabrine Coleson, the Administration for Children’s Services didn't do anything about the situation during a previous visit.
"They were here ringing people’s bells the day before the wellness check. They were here, but they didn’t do s**t," Coleson is quoted as saying. “One rang my bell and asked if I had any concerns for upstairs. And then a man opened his door and started yelling."
“Lisa was a very cool girl. I never saw her son with her, only the girl. It’s terrible," she added.
That was the only time when relatives checked on the Cottons and Millien, discovering that Promise was starving and in terrible condition on her mother's bed, even as bugs crawled over their dead bodies.
Promise's grandfather Hubert had sent his eldest granddaughter to check the situation on April 18, Friday. It ended up with the latter picking up Promise and calling the police.
Police responded to the call before 8:30 p.m. and found a woman and a male child “unconscious and unresponsive, inside the location."
According to neighbors, authorities were called to the apartment on April 15, Tuesday, but left after not detecting the stench.
Hubert said Promise survived by “feeding herself with chocolate.”
Promise was promptly sent to the hospital for further medical evaluation.
Authorities said Lisa had a history of erratic behavior and had a pending case of alleged child neglect at the ACS before she was found dead. She was also arrested in 2021 for alleged child abandonment.
PEOPLE Magazine said a spokesperson for the ACS declined to comment on the specifics of the case, but provided a statement.
“The safety and well-being of New York City's children is our top priority. We are investigating this tragedy with the NYPD," the organization is quoted as saying.
