MADISON: Two children and their mother lived for about two 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.

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

The children were in foster care on 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, and we'll continue to investigate it and try to ascertain just what occurred up there," Juneau County Sheriff Brent Oleson said yesterday. 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 129 kilometers north of Madison to check on the woman, who had not been heard from for some time.

When Deputy Leigh Neville-Neil arrived at the house, she encountered Lewis, also known as Sister Mary Bernadett, the complaint said. Lewis, 35, initially refused to allow the deputy to check on Middlesworth, telling her that Middlesworth was on vacation and saying she had to check with her "superior" first.

But she eventually let the deputy in. The house smelled of incense and burned wood, and had religious materials everywhere and hymns playing on the stereo, according to the complaint.