‘This is not how we raised our son’: Parents of house of horrors alleged killer say he was estranged for years

Brian Coulter’s parents say he has been “distant” from them for years while girlfriend Gloria Williams’ family describes her as “very unstable”

Brian Coulter appearing in court for the first time on Thursday (KPRC/Click2Houston)

The parents of the man accused of murdering his girlfriend’s son inside a Texas house of horrors have broken their silence to say “this is not how we raised our son”.

A spokesperson for Brian Coulter’s parents told The Independent over the phone on Wednesday that the 31-year-old alleged killer had been estranged from his family for several years and that they did not know any of the children he is accused of abusing.

“We are deeply saddened by the events that have unfolded. This is not how we raised our son to be,” they said.

“Our hearts and prayers go out to those brave children.

“We did not know the children involved but we are praying for the soul of the children that passed, the remaining siblings and their family and all those affected by this horrible tragedy.”

The family added: “Our relationship with Brian has been distant for years.”

Mr Coulter was arrested and charged with the murder of eight-year-old Kendrick Lee on Tuesday, two days after the child’s skeletal remains were found in a squalid apartment in Harris County, Texas.

The 31-year-old allegedly beat and kicked Kendrick to death sometime in November 2020.

For the next 11 months, the boy’s body was left to decompose inside the apartment where his three brothers – aged 15, nine and seven – were left abandoned by Mr Coulter and the children’s mother Gloria Williams.

The horrific situation came to light on Sunday when the eldest child called 911 to report that he and his siblings were living alone with their brother’s corpse.

Ms Williams was also arrested and charged with injury to a child by omission and tampering with a human corpse.

She appeared in court on Wednesday where her bond was set at $900,000. Mr Coulter appeared in court for the first time on Thursday morning after his hearing was postponed from the day before while he underwent a mental health exam.

His bond has been set at $1 million and he is ordered not to have contact with the three surviving children or Ms Williams.

Kendrick Lee was just eight years old when he was murdered, say officials (Click2Houston)

The mother of six, whose two other children don’t live with her, allegedly left her three surviving children to fend for themselves and moved to another home with her boyfriend a few months after Kendrick’s death.

The 35-year-old’s family members have spoken out to condemn her alleged treatment of her children, calling her “very unstable” and “not a mother”.

Melody Robinson, the paternal grandmother of Williams’ 13-year-old daughter who has had custody of her since the age of two, told ABC13 Ms Williams “failed” her children by allowing them to be subject to Mr Coulter’s alleged abuse.

“For you, as a mother, to watch somebody do that to your child, that’s not a mother. A mother doesn’t do that,” she said.

“Our job, as a mother, is to protect our children. She failed that baby. She failed her kids in that area. She did not protect her children.”

Ms Robinson described Ms Williams as “very unstable” and said she was glad she had been able to keep the teenage girl away from the horrific situation.

Gloria Williams is pictured in her mugshot following her arrest on Tuesday (Harris County Sheriff’s Office)

She said she wished the other children could also have been protected.

Ms Robinson said her son and Ms Williams were together for around three years.

During that time, the couple had lived at her home together with Ms Williams’ now 15-year-old son who reported the abuse to authorities this weekend.

Harrowing new details of the alleged murder of the eight-year-old boy surfaced during Ms Williams’ initial court appearance Wednesday.

The court heard the harrowing first-hand accounts of the two youngest boys who said they were in the room when Mr Coulter is accused of repeatedly punched and kicked Kendrick to death.

The nine-year-old said he saw the 31-year-old beat his brother in his face, feet, legs, back, testicles and buttocks, carrying on even after he stopped moving and “stopped blinking”.

His seven-year-old brother recalled how Mr Coulter allegedly stared him in the eyes while he violently attacked Kendrick who was in a heap on the floor.

Mr Coulter then covered his brother – whose eyes were black and unblinking from the beating – with a blanket, they said.

The two young boys both described in chilling detail seeing their sibling’s body decompose, with the nine-year-old describing how his “body was a skeleton and his hair was off” while the seven-year-old recalled looking under the blanket and seeing Kendrick “covered in roaches”.

Brian Coulter is pictured in his mugshot following his arrest for the murder of the eight-year-old son of his girlfriend (Harris County Sheriff’s Office)

Ms Williams told investigators on Sunday that she saw her boyfriend punching Kendrick last November and stopped him, the court heard.

She claimed she then came into the bedroom the next morning and found her son dead and covered in a blanket.

Ms Williams told investigators she confronted Mr Coulter, who told her he was sorry and had lost control and repeatedly punched her son “until he went to sleep”.

She said she knew her son was dead but failed to report his death because Mr Coulter asked her not to and she feared her children would be taken away from her and she would be sent to prison.

Officials said at a press conference on Wednesday that Mr Coulter had abused his girlfriend’s children “consistently” since he started dating their mother a few years ago.

“This is a textbook case of a person who abuses children,” said Sergeant Dennis Wolford of the Harris County Homicide Unit.

Gloria Williams and Brian Coulter in a photo on her Facebook. They allegedly abandoned her three other sons in the apartment with Kendrick’s corpse (Facebook)