Decaying body found on toilet in home

MADISON, Wis. — Two children and their mother lived for months with the decaying body of a 90-year-old woman on the toilet of their home's only bathroom, on the advice of a religious "superior" who claimed the corpse would come back to life, authorities said Friday.

The children, a 15-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy, cried Wednesday after a deputy who came to their Necedah home looking for Magdeline Alvina Middlesworth ordered them out because of the stench.

The children were in foster care Friday. Their mother, Tammy Lewis, and self-described "bishop" Alan Bushey remained in custody on felony counts of being a party to causing mental harm to a child.

"It's a sad case," Juneau County Sheriff Brent Oleson said. He said he had no further information on Bushey's religious affiliation.

According to the criminal complaint, Middlesworth's sister called sheriff's officials Wednesday and asked them to go to the home about 80 miles north of Madison to check on the woman.

When Deputy Leigh Neville-Neil entered the house, it smelled of incense and burned wood, according to the complaint.

When the deputy opened the last closed door, she smelled "decaying matter" and noticed something piled on what appeared to be a toilet. Lewis told her it was Middlesworth's body, the complaint said.

Lewis, 35, told the deputy that Middlesworth had died about two months earlier, but that Bushey told her God said Middlesworth would come to life if she prayed hard enough.

Autopsy results weren't available yet, Oleson said.

He described the one-story home as in decent repair, although the residents had been using "makeshift" toilet facilities because of the situation in the bathroom.