Officials investigating a complaint about child sexual assault discovered mummified human remains in the home of a man in Newark, New Jersey.
Authorities were looking into allegations of child sexual assault against Robert F. Williams, 53, when they found human remains in a closet that included a torso, a spine, and a bag of bones. Evidence of the sexual assault on a minor was also recovered.
The search of Williams’ residence came in the wake of accusations that he had assaulted a 13-year-old boy, but yielded the grisly discovery of human remains. His neighbors had reportedly complained about the smell emanating from his apartment for weeks. The discovered remains were reportedly used for religious rituals and have not yet been identified.
The father of the boy asserted to authorities that Williams had been sexually abusing his son dating back to 2018. Authorities suspected that Williams had abused the boy on multiple occasions over the course of a year.
“That smell there. It was real ripe,” Williams’ neighbor Sarah Douglas said. “The minute you opened that door, it was there.”
Williams was charged with desecration of human remains which carries a possible sentence of 10 years. He was also charged with aggravated sexual assault of a minor, luring, and child welfare endangerment.
“I was trying to find a logic for that, but a dead body is a dead body,” Douglas also said of the smell that permeated the building for weeks. The odor “lit up the whole street,” she also said.
Williams told authorities that he purchased the human remains as part of a religious offering. Law enforcement also discovered a makeshift altar in Williams’ home during the course of their search.
