5-Year-Old Wandering in Middle of Night Leads Police to Mother's Slain Body

A 5-year-old child was wandering alone in the middle of the night in a town in New Jersey and eventually led police to the murder scene of the child's mother.

A witness had called the Dumont Police Department around 12:20am to report a young child walking around the outside of an apartment complex, according to ABC7NY.

Authorities discovered the child's mother, Michelle Burns, lived in the complex and the child's aunt, who also lived in the complex, reported that her sister was not answering her phone.

The child's aunt also said she heard an argument between Burns and her live-in boyfriend, Jeffrey Daniels, earlier that night.

When police went to go question Burns about her child, they discovered she had been murdered.

"Officers entered Ms. Burns' apartment to conduct a welfare check and found her deceased," said Bergen County Prosecutor Mike Musella in a statement.

"She had been stabbed in the neck with a kitchen knife. The Dumont Police Department then notified the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office Major Crimes Unit and Bergen County Sheriff's Department Bureau of Criminal Investigations."

Per the news outlet, a neighbor claimed there was "constant friction" between Burns and Daniels.

Authorities responded to a call that Daniels had knocked on a nearby resident's door with two children and when police found him, Daniels was with Burns' other two children, ages 18 months and 6 months.

Daniels was arrested and charged with murder, possession of a weapon for unlawful purposes, and endangering the welfare of a child.