Tragedy As Mute And Autistic Boy Starves To Death ‘Clinging To Mom’ Who Died After Fatal Fit

It is so easy to get caught up in work and our own problems. But this tragic story should remind us all how important it is to take of each other. 

Four-year-old Chadrack Mbala Mulo slowly starved to death in his home after his mother suffered a fatal fit. 

After his mom passed away, he couldn’t call for help as he was mute and autistic.

Chadrack was found clinging to his mom’s badly decomposed corpse more than two weeks after her death on October 1st or 2nd last year. 

Then on October 20 the youngster and his mom were finally found at their Hackney home in East London.

It is believed Chadrack died about 48 hours earlier, the Hackney Gazette reports. His mother Esther Eketi-Mulo reportedly suffered a fatal epileptic fit.

Her little boy died of dehydration and malnutrition with autism as a contributory factor.

An inquest into the youngster’s death heard staff from his school, Morningside Primary, had visited the home twice in early October but been unable to get into the premises.

A neighbour told the Hackney Gazette: “It’s heartbreaking. It has haunted me for a long time, that I could have helped, and I didn’t know.”

“I have a little boy and [Chadrack] only just needed feeding and watering. He passed away because he was hungry, not because something happened to him.”

In a report coroner Mary Hassel said: “Chadrack had learning difficulties and, when his mother died unexpectedly at home on 1 or 2 October 2016, he did not know how to call for help or feed himself properly.”

“The likelihood is that Chadrack lived alone in the family home for over a fortnight after his mother’s death.”

“He was found a couple of days after his own death, with his arms around her body. She was by then very decomposed.”

The coroner called for a new system to be introduced to respond to unexpected absences from school in light of the Chadrack and Esther’s sad deaths. 

Headteacher of Morningside Primary, Janet Taylor, told Schools Week: “Chadrack’s tragic death has devastated all those who knew him at our school.”

“We will remember him as a happy little boy and the circumstances of his death are heartbreaking.”