5-Year-Old With Autism Found Wandering Alone at Night Helps Lead Police to Dead Mom's Body
It was just after midnight on Tuesday when police in Dumont, New Jersey, received a call about a 5-year-old girl who'd been left unattended. The child was seen wandering through the courtyard of an apartment complex where she lived with her mother, who was nowhere to be seen. But when police arrived, their hopes of reuniting the mother and her daughter were quickly dashed after they discovered the mother's body inside her apartment, dead from an apparent stab wound to the neck.
A neighbor had called 911 after seeing the child roaming around the courtyard alone.
When officers from the Dupont Police Department arrived and found the 5-year-old, they learned that her 36-year-old mother, Michelle Burns, lived in the complex. Burns' sister, Nicole Boccellari, also lives in the complex. She later told police that she'd grown increasingly worried about her sister's welfare throughout the evening.
Earlier that night, Boccellari said she had heard yelling coming from inside the apartment her sister shared with her boyfriend, Jeffrey Daniels, 36.
Since Boccellari lived close by, she could hear the arguing from her own apartment, but likely shrugged it off as yet another spat between the combative couple.
Later that evening, though, another neighbor called and sounded some alarm bells. Apparently, Daniels had mysteriously showed up on her doorstep around midnight, asking for a ride. According to NorthJersey.com, something about the encounter made the woman uneasy, and she refused to let him in.
But as he walked away to knock on someone else's door, she noticed something else was strange: Daniels wasn't wearing pants -- only a jacket -- and he was holding his baby in his arms.
The neighbor immediately called Boccellari, who tried without success to contact her sister.
"I was calling and screaming her name into the apartment and banging on the door, and my neighbor was banging on the windows, and we got no response," she later told NorthJersey.com.
Just minutes later, police forced open the door, and were met with a grisly scene inside. As Boccellari later recalled, they walked out shaking their heads.
The mother of three was lying a pool of blood, and pronounced dead at the scene.
"Officers entered Ms. Burns' apartment to conduct a welfare check and found her deceased," said Bergen County Prosecutor Mike Musella in a press statement. "She had been stabbed in the neck with a kitchen knife. The Dumont Police Department then notified the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office Major Crimes Unit and Bergen County Sheriff's Department Bureau of Criminal Investigations."
Family and friends were reportedly aware of the contentious relationship between Burns and Daniels, who shared two children together.
"It was never a good relationship, it was never a safe relationship," her sister shared.
It didn't take long for police to track Daniels down after discovering his girlfriend's body. He was found walking on a street in nearby Closter, New Jersey, with the couple's two children, an 18-month-old and a 6-month old. The 5-year-old is reportedly from a previous relationship.
According to ABC News, the father was found just as he attempted to knock on the door of a residence.
Daniels was immediately taken into custody and charged.
He now faces charges of murder, possession of a weapon for unlawful purposes, and endangering the welfare of a child. He has also been remanded to the Bergen County Jail, and awaits his first appearance in the Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack, New Jersey.
For now, Burns' family is remembering her for the loving mother, sister, and daughter that she was.
"[She was] family-oriented, caring, first to help. Selfless," her brother, John Boccellari, said of his little sister. "Whenever she felt like someone needed her, especially if I needed her, she was first to be there. I miss that."
Her two children with Daniels are now being cared for by family, while Burns' 5-year-old daughter is with her father, Burns' estranged husband.
Family friends have also set up a GoFundMe page in Michelle's memory, which has since raised more than $15,000 to help support her daughters.
"Michelle was tragically taken at the tender age of 36, leaving behind three young daughters ages 8 months, 18 months, and 5 years old one of whom is autistic," the page reads. "The purpose of this page is to help raise money to assist in the financial hardships ahead that the family will be facing due to her untimely death. Two of her three daughters are now left with no parents. Those who were lucky enough to know her know that this is a tremendous loss to her family, her daughters, and her friends."