I Will Never Ever Second Guess Myself If I think something is wrong with a child.

[firedupdem]

This is a sad story, but a lesson to us about looking out for our neighbors even if we aren't sure a problem exists.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090121/METRO01/901210379/&imw=Y

Romulus boy, 8, lived for 10 days with dead mom

She's 'in a better place now,' upset child told store owner.

ROMULUS -- The 8-year-old wore pajama bottoms, boots and a hoodie sweatshirt tied tight under his nose. He lived on chips and doughnuts purchased a dollar at a time from the liquor store next to his apartment.

He was usually short. Romulus Liquor store owner Layth Saco let him slide until curiosity got the best of him Monday when the boy loaded the counter with turkey and ham, hamburger buns, chips, cheesy dip, candy and Yoo-hoo and tried to pay with an expired credit card and his mother's driver's license. Saco asked the boy, Trinity, to have his mother give him a call.

"I've got three kids. I had the feeling it was something bad," Saco said. "He broke down and told me, 'My mom is in a better place now.' "

By then, the boy's mother, 41-year-old Gaynell Tipado, had been dead inside their apartment for 10 days.

Saco sat the boy down -- gave him chocolate milk and chips -- and called the police. They're still unraveling the latest tragedy to befall the boy, who already had lost his father and moved with his mother to Michigan after Hurricane Katrina.

The boy is believed to have learning difficulties and was not enrolled in school. Neighbors say his mother had been sick, and are second-guessing whether they should have done more to help the boy some saw wandering in the cold in pajamas.

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Tabatha Zaorski, 25, said it was around Jan. 9 when she saw the boy outside in the Sky Harbor courtyard frolicking in the frigid cold. But the boy smiled and laughed despite his thin outfit of pajama bottoms, boots and a coat. He held a video camera, she said.

She said she hollered at him to get inside and then marched over to give Tipado a piece of her mind.

"I was knocking on the door. No one answered. Then I left it alone," Zaorski said. "I didn't see him again."

She called police. She told them not to come out, and she'd see if anything else out of the ordinary happened.

"I didn't see him again so I didn't call back," she said. "I should have."