New Zealand Toddler Survives on Leftovers After Mom's Death
ABC News’ Ellen Tumposky writes:
A 3-year-old ate leftover lasagna and lived with her mother’s body for two days until police came to the home, according to published reports in New Zealand.
“Mummy won’t wake up,” little Shylah Silbery told a family friend and police who came on Oct. 21 to the apartment she shared with her mother, Lauren Silbery, 28, the Dominion Post reported today.
Police, talking to Shylah through a cat flap, persuaded her to climb on a chair and open a chain on the door, police told the paper.
Shylah’s uncle, Pete Silbery, told the Associated Press that the little girl ate the lasagna and drank milk from the refrigerator and cuddled her teddy bear, Possum.
“I can only imagine her in there for that long, trying to wake up Mum as well,” he said.
The toddler was treated at a local hospital for dehydration and diaper rash and is now healthy. An autopsy will determine the cause of her mother’s death.
