Call from disconnected cell phone leads to child’s decomposing body in a closet

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Police are investigating after a mummified body was found in a closet at a DeKalb County apartment complex.

New information from a DeKalb County Police Department incident report reveals police received a call about a dead person at the Hidden Valley Apartments on Misty Waters Drive.

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The 911 call came in from a disconnected cell phone. Deactivated cell phones are still able to call 911 for emergencies.

Police checked the closet inside the apartment the caller mentioned and found a decaying body, believed to be a female between the ages of 2 and 4, according to the report.

Video sent to Channel 2 Action News does appear to show a body in a closet with a purse on top of it and debris surrounding it. The video is too graphic to show.

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The door to the apartment was boarded up on Tuesday and there was crime scene tape strung up outside.

Catherine Costello lives next door to the unit where the body was found on Sunday night.

“It’s an atrocity it really is. It’s a shame that humanity can get that low,” Costello said.

Costello said the unit has been vacant for a while, but a woman lived there before. Costello said she never saw a child.

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Neighbors also told police they had not seen the previous tenant for a few months after she moved out.

Other neighbors told Channel 2 homeless people would sleep in the unit and that it wasn’t empty.

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