A 13-year-old boy with Down syndrome was found starved to death in a motel and several months later, cops are hunting for his mother.
Serena Starkey, 53, remains on the run more than three months after police were dispatched to an Extended Stay America in Birmingham, Alabama, where she and her son, Aston Starkey, were living.
Cops on the morning of March 2 rushed Aston from the motel on Cahaba Park Circle near US 280 to Grandview Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
A preliminary investigation revealed that Aston ‘died under suspicious circumstances’, according to the Birmingham Police Department. The Shelby County DHR also started a probe.
On June 6, the police department was informed that Aston’s autopsy showed that he died of malnutrition and dehydration, both complicated by neglect. His manner of death was ruled a homicide by a medical examiner’s office.
The next day, the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office issued an arrest warrant for murder for Serena.
Aston was born in Florida but moved with his mother often, reported AL.com. He may have lived in Montgomery, prior to relocating to Birmingham where they had lived for roughly a year.
The teenager was not attending school and rarely if ever was seen by a doctor, authorities told the news outlet.
Anyone with information on Serena’s whereabouts is urged to contact the police department’s homicide unit. She has been described as white.
It is the 57th murder investigation in Birmingham so far this year. Five have resulted in justifiable death rulings.
The search for Serena is underway nearly two years after a vegan mother in Florida was convicted of starving her 18-month-old son to death by feeding him only raw vegetables and fruits. The toddler’s parents found he stopped breathing and prosecutors accused the mother of failing to seek medical help for him when he was sick.
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