9-year-old Tennessee boy lived with mother's corpse for a month

December 8, 1999
Web posted at: 1:15 PM EST (1815 GMT)

Travis Butler cut his hair, fixed meals -- mainly frozen pizza, cereal and soup -- and went to school every day from the time he said his mother died November 3 until her body was discovered Monday.

"I just don't know how that baby survived in there for a month with that smell," family friend Dorothy Jeffries said. "It was the saddest thing I have ever seen in my life."

Police have not released a cause of death for Crystal Wells, 30, but said foul play is not suspected. Mrs. Jeffries said Wells suffered various health problems, including high blood pressure.

Mrs. Jeffries and her husband, Nathaniel, found the body when they went to the East Memphis apartment after they were unable to contact her.

When they arrived, Travis answered the door.

"At first he said his mother was at work and wouldn't let us inside," said Mrs. Jeffries. "When we kept asking he finally just broke down and said, 'Mama can't talk anymore because she got really sick and I think she is dead."'

Wells' body was on the living room floor. Travis had covered it with his mother's coat and placed sheets of notebook paper over her face, Mrs. Jeffries said.

She said Travis begged them not to call police because he was afraid of being placed in a foster home.

"When the ambulance came he ran to his mother because he didn't want her to be taken. I will never forget that sight," she said.

Mrs. Jeffries said Wells never mentioned Travis' father. When she asked Travis, he said he didn't have a father.

"When we talked she was always depressed but she loved Travis," Mrs. Jeffries said.

At South Park Elementary School, where Travis was a fourth-grader, teachers and administrators described him as a normal child.

His teacher, Pamela Lawson, said Travis hadn't shown any signs that something was wrong. He dressed as usual, caught the school bus to get to school and did his homework.

A few weeks ago, Lawson said Travis didn't bring back the packet of papers she sends home with students each Tuesday to show their parents. She wrote a note to Travis' mother requesting she sign the papers.

"They were returned signed," Lawson said.

After she found out about the death, Lawson said she checked the signatures.

"He had been signing his papers and he had signed his report card. He had her signature down, somewhat," she said.

His mother had some money in the house and when he ran out of food he walked to the grocery store and bought more, she said.

Travis was turned over to his maternal grandparents, who live in Carthage, Mississippi, authorities said.

Copyright 1999 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.