‘Christmases will never be the same’: Odd comment led to tip that found boy’s body
Sushi Staples charged with concealing death of 10-year-old son and lying to authorities
DAVENPORT, Iowa (KWQC) - It’s been one week since police found a 10-year-old boy’s body in the garage of a Rock Island home.
Zion Staples died in December. His mother, Sushi Staples, is charged with hiding the body and lying to the police.
Authorities say Staples had concealed Zion’s body in a trash bin inside the garage for the past eight months. The home is in the 1700 block of 20½ Avenue.
TV6 Investigates spoke with a woman whose tip ultimately led police to the body. She declined to go on camera and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Our source said she’d made repeated calls to the Department of Children and Family Services over the past few months because Staples was making odd comments about the boy. On Jan. 3, Staples told the source that Christmases would never be the same.
The source’s call to DCFS on July 25 led to a welfare check, and police found the body.
Staples was arrested hours later.
Staples is charged with four felonies, including concealment of a death and obstruction of justice.
An autopsy on Zion was performed Friday in Rockford. Authorities have not released the results.
So far, no one has been charged with causing the boy’s death.
Rock Island police said they had no new information for the public today. Staples’ next court hearing is Aug. 15.
Neighbors said that the family was a normal, Christian family.
Andre and Danielle Builta have been renovating the home next door and moved in last month.
The Builtas said there was never any indication of a grisly crime.
They said a happy family lived here.
“We saw that, we saw two girls. You know, coming sometimes, like out in the yard. I saw them drawing with chalk in the back driveway. And with scooters out front of the garage, everything seemed really normal. They would wave when they saw us. And so we were like, Oh, they seem pretty friendly. Actually, for neighbors.”
The girls were playing a few feet from where prosecutors say Staples was hiding her son’s body.
The Builtas said it’s like something out of a movie.
“It’s a little weird, because all knowing that all the time that we’ve been here, working on the house, and knowing her, knowing what was in the garage, literally like, what, like 30 feet from the house that we’ve moved into, it’s a little bit worrying, kind of scary, but, um, it was it was quite a surprise. I wasn’t expecting that at all.”
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