A woman found dead in her Brooklyn apartment along with the decomposing body of her autistic 7-year-old son — who cops suspect may have starved to death — shut out the outside world after discovering her grandfather dead in the same apartment, relatives said Thursday.
The decomposing bodies of Sara Watkins, 33, and her son, Canon Reid, were discovered in their East New York NYCHA apartment at about 3 p.m. Wednesday. Canon was autistic, nonverbal and being home-schooled by his reclusive mother, police sources said.
Canon’s aunt, Rosetta Herbert, lives one floor above the doomed mother and son in the Unity Plaza Houses on Dumont Ave. near Hinsdale St. She called 911 Wednesday after smelling a foul odor for two weeks.
Herbert, 63, initially suspected a rodent had died beneath the radiator in her living room. But the stench went on to spread to her bedroom and the rest of her apartment.
“I was smelling her and didn’t know.” Herbert said. “Two weeks ago, flies started coming into my apartment from the radiator up. It’s winter time. When do you see flies in the winter time?”
Herbert’s brother, Keon Reid, is the boy’s father. Neither of them had seen the boy or his mom for weeks.
“I can’t believe it. This is like a dream,” Reid, 38, said of his son’s shocking death. “I see it on the news now and everybody’s calling me, so I know it’s real. But it’s still not believable.”
Reid had not seen his son outside of video chats since moving in 2020 to Pennsylvania, where he has a wife and two other kids.
Reid was arrested last year on a parole violation and spent six months on Rikers Island. Upon his release six weeks ago, Reid said, he went to visit Canon but the boy’s mother refused to let him see his son.
He suspects that might have been the last time anyone spoke with Watkins or saw her alive.
“I went to her house just to see my son, because I haven’t seen him,” Reid recounted. “I’ve seen him on the iPhone, but I haven’t seen him physically since he was 3 years old. She wouldn’t let me see him.”
“It was really tough,” he added. “I sent money. I sent Christmas gifts. I sent birthday gifts all the time.”
Cops who arrived just after 2 p.m. Wednesday made the grisly discovery. The city medical examiner is conducting autopsies to determine the causes of death.
Cops are unsure how Watkins died but don’t suspect criminality. They believe her son, who was found dead in bed, may have starved to death after his mother’s demise.
“He knew how to go in the fridge. How could he starve to death?” Herbert asked. “That poor boy. I had all this food up here.”
It wasn’t the first time a body was discovered in the apartment.
Watkins and her son lived in the apartment with the grandfather who raised her — until Watkins found him dead of natural causes in his bedroom three years ago, Herbert said.
“That’s when she changed,” Herbert said. “She pushed everybody away overnight. She said, ‘My grandfather, that’s all I had.’ She said, ‘I found him in the room dead.’ She found him.”
Reid said everything changed between him and Watkins after her grandfather died.
“She stopped talking to me,” he said. “She just distanced herself.”
Herbert was cut out of her nephew’s life, she says.
“You don’t know how many times I knocked on that door,” Herbert said. “I knew she was in there, but she wouldn’t open up. I was begging her at the window, ‘Please let me see my nephew.” I tried to see that boy, believe me.”
“I gave him candy when I saw him,” she added. “Tried to get him to come up here to play with my grandson. I tried to get him to come upstairs, but she was antisocial.”
Reid said he will come to New York City on Friday to claim his son’s body. He regrets not being able to get to know him better.
“He wasn’t talking, so I didn’t really build a relationship like with my other kids,” he said. “The last time I talked to him he was just looking at the phone and playing around with toys and stuff, jumping on the bed. He never really said nothing. It didn’t look like he was happy.”