This is reported by the Ghanaian medium Citi News, based on conversations that social workers have had with the children. The young teens were taken from the house in critical condition, where police previously found the decomposing body of their mother Ernestina. Father Samuel sat dead in the toilet. It soon became clear that the boys urgently needed professional help. The older of the two was in shock and unable to speak. That is still the case, according to Citi News.
In the meantime, however, more seems to have become clear after the youngest child has made a first statement. According to the boy, at one point the parents decided to stop eating because they saw food as a curse. The children were also instructed not to take any more food. “We didn’t eat because our parents were worried about something. If you want to take the curse out of food, you must pray first and then eat.” Despite this, their father and mother did not do that afterwards.
‘We had no food for days’
The child went on to explain that he and his older brother had been out of food for a while, but that they were locked in their apartment and couldn’t go out to get anything. “We ran out of food for days, and we got weak,” he told Citi News. Help came just in time, his words show. “The police came to our house and took us to the hospital.” His parents were taken to a morgue. The children did not realize at first that they were both dead.
According to the Abuakwa Outpatient Medical Inspector Dr Mensah Manye, the two children were dehydrated and very weak when they were taken to the medical facility. “The police brought the two children here and told me that the children had been locked in their room with their parents for several months. They lay helpless, unconscious, so officers rushed to get help. When they arrived, an examination revealed that the very skinny children were severely dehydrated. Their bones were even visible, showing the extent of weight loss. They could no longer talk or walk. They couldn’t do anything more.” Aid workers managed to teach them, to have them strengthen, after which the youngest was able to talk again.
Lost contact with family
The Dutch Jackson family, of Ghanaian descent, moved from Amsterdam-North to the African country seven years ago. Mother Ernestina’s body was in an advanced state of decomposition. Father Samuel appeared to have tried to conserve her body.
The woman had broken off contact with all her family for years. Father Samuel was known to be a very religious man, he regularly attended the Pentecost Revival Church on the Bijlmerdreef, where he was an organist, friends of his told De Telegraaf this week.
After arriving from our country, the family immediately isolated themselves completely from their neighbors. According to local media, neighbors indicated that the family members, probably under the coercion of the father, did not want to mix with other people.
The last time co-tenants of the complex saw the family was sometime in May this year when the Jacksons returned home. They parked their unregistered Ford Expedition car, went upstairs to their residence, and closed their door. They would never have been outside again.