Three Children, Ages 15, 10 and 7, Were Found Abandoned in an Apartment with Dead Brother's Remains.

Harris County, Texas police made a gruesome discovery after receiving a call about a dead body!

KHOU reports that at about 3:15 p.m. Sunday, deputies said they received a call from a 15-year-old who claimed his 9-year-old brother has been dead for a year and his body was in a room next to his in an apartment in the 3500 block of Green Crest, near Addicks-Clodine and the Westpark Tollway. The teenager then told deputies his parents hadn't been living in the apartment with him and his two younger siblings for several months.

Deputies went to the third-floor apartment and found the three children alone as well as the skeletal remains of a small child. Deputies said the remains appeared consistent with the age provided by the 15-year-old.

The younger siblings, who Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said were 10 and 7, appeared malnourished and showed signs of physical injury, according to investigators. They, along with their 15-year-old sibling, were taken to a nearby hospital to be treated.

There is no word, or speculation, on how the 9-year-old died or how the 10 and 7 year-old received their injuries. The mother of the children and her boyfriend have been located and were being interviewed by homicide investigators as of Sunday night.

Sheriff Gonzalez said in a tweet Monday morning that the mother and her boyfriend were released. No charges have been filed. "In our experience, it's always best to not speculate and just let the investigation take its course, but a very disturbing set of circumstances, so we definitely want some answers for these children," the sheriff said. A representative for the apartment’s management company declined to talk to our reporter on scene.

This is an active investigation.

Of all of the things that could happen to children in this world, this has got to be one of the absolute worst. The children will be placed with proper guardians until suitable relatives can be found.