A 37-year-old Pennsylvania man was charged with abuse of a corpse this week, months after his 70-year-old mother was found dead in the home they shared in Bensalem.
Police said they were called to the home by a neighbor, who reported a foul odor, in October, WPVI says. Derrick Bouffard answered the door and told officer he was “about to call you guys.”
“My mom stopped breathing this morning,” he said.
Officers found Cynthia Bouffard in the family room, emaciated and decomposing. She weighed just 60 pounds, and the coroner said she’d likely been dead for nearly two weeks.
Investigators found that Derrick Bouffard had been ordering food delivered to the home multiple times a day, and he had to walk past his mother’s body to get to the front door to retrieve the food.
The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office said the medical examiner’s report indicates Cynthia Bouffard died of medical causes and did not appear to have been denied food.
Her daughter, Carrie Acevedo, told WPVI that it’s suspected her mother had severe dementia but was never diagnosed. She said that her brother had been living with her for years. Acevedo, who lives out of state, said she had begged her mother to come live with her, but her mom would not leave her son behind.
“I feel super conflicted. I know my mom loves my brother very much. I don’t want to feel hate for my brother,” she said.
“It feels like a movie. It doesn’t feel like it’s real life. I feel regret for not being there, for not doing more,” she added.
Derrick Bouffard is due in court for a preliminary hearing next month.
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[Featured image: Cynthia Bouffard/James J. Dougherty Funeral Home]
