US: Indian Woman Charged With Murder, For Starving Son To Death

An Indian woman from North Carolina in the United States was charged with the murder of her 10-year-old son, whose decomposing body was found by the police. Priyanka Tiwari allegedly starved her son to death and left his body to decompose. Police said that she herself called the emergency response hotline 911 claiming her son was unresponsive. When the police arrived, they could tell that the body was decomposing for days due to suspected starvation, and Tiwari was arrested.

Police Chief Pete Acosta told a local news channel WRAL that they received a call to conduct welfare checks on Tiwari's Morrisville home several times before, sometimes even from India. The police first went to their home in March, when Tiwari was experiencing a mental health crisis.

Indian Woman Starves Son To Death

Morrisville Police said that Priyanka Tiwari made a call to 911 at 5:35 pm (local time) on Dec 20, alleging that her son was unresponsive. When they arrived at her home in Craigmeade Drive, they discovered that the son's body was decomposing. They tried to perform CPR but knew it was too late. 

The police could identify that the boy was starved, by the enormous amount of weight he had lost in the month before his death. The arrest warrant states that Tiwari, “unlawfully, willfully, and feloniously did of malice aforethought kill and murder (her son)," according to American media reports.

Chief Pete Acosta told WRAL that an autopsy was being conducted. “Without the autopsy, we don’t know how the child passed away,” he said. He also stated that the 911 response team had reached their residence eight times since March for welfare checks as relatives tried to reach out to them.

“Usually it was someone from India... I’m assuming it was a family member who had not been able to reach her in several days,” Acosta said. The police alleged that Tiwari was mentally unfit, as the first time they responded to the 33-year-old was for an undisclosed mental illness episode.

Police also said that Tiwari's husband had a domestic violence protective order against her since then. He allegedly left the house with the assistance of the police as he collected his belongings. "He was leaving the home, and so we followed him over there... He went and got several bags and left. There were no issues,” a local police officer told the media.

She was taken into custody on December 21 and charged with one count of first-degree murder and one count of negligent child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury, Law&Crime reported. During a brief court hearing that morning, Tiwari's next hearing is scheduled for January 22, until which she will be held without bail.