Concealed death case: Coroner identifies 10-year-old Rock Island boy

ROCK ISLAND, Ill. (KWQC) - A Rock Island woman will be arraigned on several charges Friday afternoon after police say she concealed the death of her 10-year-old son in a garbage can in the garage, court records show.

Rock Island County Coroner Brian Gustafson identified the boy as Zion Staples. An autopsy was conducted Friday in Rockford, Illinois.

Gustafson said the preliminary autopsy results indicate that the boy’s death is considered suspicious.

“Due to the extreme initiation of the investigation, no further information will be available at this time,” he said.

The boy’s mother, Sushi M. Staples, 37, is charged with obstructing justice, failure to report the death of a child younger than 13 and concealment of a death.

The charges are all a Class 4 felony punishable by one to three years in prison.

Rock Island police started an investigation into a suspicious death about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday in the 1700 block of 20 ½ Avenue.

According to the criminal complaint, Staples lied to an officer about the whereabouts of her son and claimed she had no son and that his birth certificate was fraudulent while knowing that he died in December and was inside a garbage can in her garage.

According to the complaint, she failed to report the boy’s death and moved his body from the home to the garbage bin in the garage.

Staples was arrested Wednesday night and taken to the Rock Island County Jail on a $500,000 bond.

She has a preliminary hearing Aug. 15.

Staples has not been charged in the boy’s death.