Mossos d’Esquadra officers let themselves into the rented home in Girona (Picture: Getty Images)

An American couple in Spain allegedly spent a month eating and sleeping with their two teenage daughters next to the decomposing boy of their dead seven-year-old son.

Bruce and Schrell Hopkins were arrested by the Catalan Mossos d’Esquadra after officers entered their rented home in Girona using a key given to them by the landlady, El Periódico reports.

The US consulate in Barcelona had been contacted by Mr Hopkins’ employers about an extended absence from work and had contacted police.

The landlady was reportedly concerned that the family had not paid their rent for several months.


Police said they were struck by the mess on the ground floor and a stench coming from upstairs from they entered. When they went to investigate the smell, they found a spacious room with mattresses around a central bed. On the bed was a ‘lump curled up in a blanket’.



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Police pulled the cover off to find the decomposing body of a child. Marks on the bed suggested someone had been sleeping next to the body.

‘The parents of the youngster found dead in Girona have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter,’ a spokesman for Mossos d’Esquadra said.

‘The investigation to clarify the circumstances of the youngster’s death remains open.’

Police suspect the youngster died of an illness more than a month ago, but investigators are still awaiting the results of the post-mortem.

The two teenage girls, aged 13 and 15, have been taken into care.

El Periódico said the prevailing theory is that the child fell ill, and the parents tried to cure him with alternative medicine. The Catalan daily speculated that when he died, the parents were unable to come to terms with his death.