Gloria Williams silently watched Brian Coulter beat non-verbal, autistic son to death
HOUSTON, TEXAS: Houston House of Horrors' Gloria Williams has told investigators that she did not report her son's death because her boyfriend Brian Coulter told her not to. "This mother had a year to contact law enforcement so you can't tell me that for every minute for a year you were afraid," Lt Dennis Wilford, saying that Coulter was "manupulative". On being asked why the boys did not call authorities earlier, Wilford said, "I believe it was absolute fear ... Over time, I believe that the beatings were consistent, mainly directed at the younger children, and the 15-year-old was absolutely afraid, basically, hoping and relying on his mother to at some point to contact law enforcement ... and that didn't happen."
Williams did not physically harm the children, but Wilford said that she is as harmful for her kids as her boyfriend is. "I would say they are both an abuser," Wilford told reporters. "He's an abuser physically, and she's an abuser by omission." Family members have said that Kendrick Lee, the boy who was murdered by Coulter, was autistic and mostly non-verbal.
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The couple was picked up by cops at a public library while they were looking up news articles about their own crimes. The couple was found searching for articles about the discovery of the decomposing remains of the woman's dead son in an apartment that was housing three other abandoned, starving children. Brian Coulter, 31, was arrested and charged this week with felony murder in connection with the death of Kendrick Lee, 8. Gloria Williams, 35, Coulter's girlfriend and the deceased boy's mother has been charged with injury to a child by omission and tampering with evidence, a human corpse.
The shocking discovery was made after the 15-year-old called 911, revealing the details to the Harris County Sheriff's Office (HCSO). An autopsy on the body of the eight-year-old revealed he died due to homicide last year. All the while, the children's mother Williams lived just 15 minutes away, with Coulter in Westchase. Reportedly, the 15-year-old has been fending for himself and his brothers thanks to the generosity of neighbors at West Oaks Apartments, none of whom knew about their condition.
The elder child finally snapped a year after being alone, setting the stage for his mother's arrest. In a statement on October 24, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said, "Very horrific situation here, very tragic. I've been in this business for a long time and I've never heard of a scenario like this, it really caught me by surprise." With the investigation still ongoing, there's not much we know, but we do have a basic timeline as laid out by the HSCO.
The four children were reportedly left to fend for themselves at an apartment by Williams, who occasionally made visits to bring noodles, snacks, and drinks. About six months ago, one of the neighbors, Erica Chapman started providing food as well. She said that the 15-year-old refused cooked meals, only agreeing to take fruit, pizza, and packaged snacks. Another neighbor, Trevor Thompson revealed the boy was "paranoid and feared getting poisoned".
Both of them were providing the 15-year-old with food for months, completely unaware he had a sibling or a dead body in the next room. Thompson was first alerted to the idea of another child only after the 15-year-old replied "The first pizza we had" when asked if he liked the pizza Thompson had provided. "That made me wonder why would he say, "We"." However, none of them called the authorities because they were unaware of the severity of the situation. "I didn't want to push him away by asking questions because I knew he was starving and needed food," Chapman said.
Eventually, the 15-year-old had had enough, and shortly before he called 911 on October 24, he texted Williams and said he "could not take it anymore." The police quickly arrived at the scene and discovered that the 15, 10, and seven-year-old were malnourished, and the youngest sibling had broken bones on his face. An autopsy on the body of the eight-year-old revealed he died due to multiple blunt force injuries.