Family taken from home following discovery of decomposing remains of family members

It was a demented and surreal scene that greeted Spanish police officers upon entering a home in the San Martín de Valdeiglesias community near Madrid on January 14. Acting on a court order, members of the Civil Guard noticed a horrific stench upon opening the door to the home of a Taiwanese family.

It was then that they found decomposing remains of the 46-year-old father of the family, along with those of a 15 year-old son and a 4 year-old daughter. Sitting nearby were the survivors, a 44-year-old homemaker, two daughters aged 14 and 11, and a 6-year-old son. The living were emaciated and filthy and in an obviously distressed state.

The mother, upon being taken away by an ambulance cried out for her children, apparently not wishing to be separated from them. The whole family was taken by ambulance to the Alcorcón Hospital. Local authorities entered the home wearing isolation suits as a precaution against possible infection. An autopsy will be done on the dead members of the family to determine the cause of death. So far, the survivors appear to be suffering from advanced malnutrition rather than a contagious disease which may have killed the others.

Police had gone to the home several times since November 2009, when the family’s children ceased attending school. On January 14, upon seeing one of the children in a window of the dwelling, they decided to take action.

A neighbor woman told local media “The last time they came to my home they appeared famished.” She added that the family had not paid rent on their home since April 2009 and had been noticed searching for food in rubbish heaps. The father had been employed by a Chinese merchant, but not been noticed to leave his home as usual in a small truck.

The neighbor said that in the home, the family had a small altar where they had placed offerings, perhaps in an effort to obtain healing and prosperity. Overwhelmed by emotion, Mayor Pablo Martín “It had been a long time since they had had a normal life and that their home had been closed to the world.”