For all you fathers fighting so hard for custody...............

[Devonikdad]

.......this should frustrate you more.    Please note:  This poor child was actually sent back to his mother.




A 12-year-old boy knocked on his neighbor's door at the Telford Garden Apartments at 1 a.m. last Friday, and said he thought something was wrong with his mom, according to police narrative.


 
The neighbor went to the boy's apartment and was shown the mother's locked bedroom door.

After loosening the door with a screwdriver, the man and the boy found the mom, Jennifer Mattes, asleep on a small couch, and a man named Brian Jarvis on the floor, police said.

The neighbor told the boy that it was all right, they're just sleeping, and r

eturned to his apartment.

The neighbor was awakened by knocking again at 4 a.m.


This time the 12-year-old boy appeared even more alarmed and said his mother needed help.

When the man entered the apartment upstairs, he saw Jennifer Mattes dragging a body across the living-room floor, police said.

It was Jarvis', and Mattes asked for the neighbor's help getting Jarvis out, saying that he was dead and could not be there, police said.

The man heard the boy yelling for his mom to stop, and he returned to his apartment and called 9-1-1.

When Telford police arrived at the apartments at 149 N. Fourth St., they found Brian Jarvis' body

on the front stoop, police said.

Montgomery County coroners said the 35-year-old Jarvis, of Franconia, had died around midnight from an adverse effect of drugs.

The 32-year-old Mattes was arraigned Thursday on charges of endangering the welfare of a child and corruption of minors, as well as possession of a small amount of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, police said.

When police had searched her apartment later that Friday, they allegedly found two waterpipes, used for smoking, with marijuana residue.

Montgomery County Children and Youth caseworkers also came to the apartment that day.

Telford Detective Randy Floyd, who was there as well, said in the affidavit of probable cause that Mattes argued with them and seemed unconcerned that a 12-year-old boy had witnessed his mom drag a dead body out of the living room.

Floyd took protective custody of the boy under the Pennsylvania Child Protective Services Law.

He stated that another man doing drugs with Mattes had overdosed in September 2005 and remained hospitalized in the intensive care unit for several days.

Her son had been present during that incident, too, Floyd said, and had been taken into protective custody then, as well.

Mattes' bail was set at $25,000 unsecured.

A preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge Kenneth Deatelhauser was scheduled for 11 a.m. May 30.

Attempts to reach Mattes on Thursday were unsuccessful.

Staff Writer Thomas Chen can be reached at (215) 361-8817; [email protected]