Erotic dancer arrested after child death

Investigators treat the boy's death as a murder

A woman has been detained in the United States after a boy in her care was found dead in a bin at her house.

The children were in a terrible state

Sharpe James
Mayor of Newark

Sherry Murphy, a 41-year-old erotic dancer, was arrested in a flat in Newark, New Jersey.

Police had launched a major hunt to find her after the body of seven-year-old Faheem Williams was discovered on Sunday, a day after his two brothers were found beaten and starving in a locked room.

The boys' mother, Melinda Williams, told police that she left them in the care of Ms Murphy, her cousin, after she was jailed for assault in March.

Grisly discovery

Ms Murphy has been charged with child endangerment but could face more serious charges as the death of the boy is being treated as a murder.

The surviving boys, Faheem's twin brother, Raheem, 7, and Tyrone, 4, were found by Ms Murphy's boyfriend who alerted the police.

He said he lived in the house for two weeks and knew nothing about the children locked in the basement.

Sherry Murphy was left in charge of her cousin's children

The boys are still in hospital, where they are being treated for burns, starvation and dehydration.

The boys told doctors that their brother had been missing for weeks.

The police discovered Faheem's dead body in a plastic bin in the same basement room of Ms Murphy's two-storey house.

"The children were in a terrible state," Newark's mayor Sharpe James told a press conference.

"The room was a nightmare - faeces... you name it... vomiting; all the ills you could think of."

Jailed mother

The boys are also said to have an 11-year-old brother, who was not with them and whose whereabouts were not known.

The children's mother, who also works as an erotic dancer, said she had been looking for the children since her release from prison in August, but couldn't find them.

She was informed about the discovery of her children and was on her way to be reunited with them when she was struck by a car, police officials said.

She is now in a critical but stable condition in a New York hospital.

New Jersey state agency in charge of child care said the case on the Williams family was closed in March despite many complaints of child abuse.

The Department of Human Services Commissioner Gwendolyn Harris said that "there may have been major problems in handling of the case" and that corrective measures would be taken.

The state's governor has demanded a report on the actions of the social services.