Background: The home on Hunter Court in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, where Cynthia Bouffard”s body was found (WPVI/YouTube). Inset: Cynthia Louise Bouffard (James J. Dougherty Funeral Home, Inc.).
A man is accused of letting his mother’s body rot for roughly two weeks in their Pennsylvania home until a resident contacted authorities over a stench.
Derrick Bouffard, 37, stands charged with abuse of a corpse in connection with the death of his mother, 70-year-old Cynthia Bouffard, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show. Though he was charged on March 6, the case stretches back to late 2025.
On Oct. 25, 2025, officers with the Bensalem Police Department said they were called to a home on the 5000 block of South Hunters Court in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, a township located directly northeast of Philadelphia. A neighbor had requested officers come out after reporting a foul odor, according to local ABC affiliate WPVI.
Derrick Bouffard reportedly greeted police at the door and said, “I was just about to call you guys, my mom stopped breathing this morning.”
Officers entered the home and “discovered a deceased elderly female inside the residence,” the police department said. With the help of the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office and the Bucks County Coroner’s Office, the woman was identified as Cynthia Bouffard.
However, it did not appear to authorities as though she had just stopped breathing earlier that day. The police department noted that “she appeared to be emaciated and had been deceased for some time in the living room of the home.”
Investigators believed Cynthia Bouffard was dead on a mattress in the living room for nearly two weeks because she was decomposing and weighed just 60 pounds, the local outlet reported. In that time span, Derrick Bouffard is said to have been ordering food to the house one to three times a day and had to walk past the living room to get to the front door.
The Bensalem Police Department said the day after officers arrived at the home that it and the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office “are treating this as a suspicious death investigation pending the results of the autopsy.”
However, according to WPVI, the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office said that based on the medical examiner’s report, it appeared that Cynthia Bouffard died from medical causes.
Carrie Acevedo, Cynthia Bouffard’s daughter, told the TV station that she feels “super conflicted” because “I know my mom loves my brother very much. I don’t want to feel hate for my brother.”
“It feels like a movie,” Acevedo continued, adding that her mother may have suffered from severe dementia but was never diagnosed. “It doesn’t feel like it’s real life. I feel regret for not being there, for not doing more.”
Cynthia Bouffard is remembered in her obituary as a former nurse who “cared for countless patients with dedication and compassion for over three decades.” She “was a fiercely independent, strong-willed woman, proud of her resilience and ability to stand on her own.”
Derrick Bouffard is set to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on April 8.
