A 13-year-old disabled girl was left to die in her own faeces after her mother neglected her, Wisconsin police say.
A police officer found Brianna Gussert, dead in her bedroom on Memorial Weekend in May last year.
It is believed she died of sepsis and could have been dead for up to five days before police found her, after her mother Nicole Gussert, 37, neglected her, the Post-Crescent reports.
Gussert has been charged with one count of child neglect resulting in death.
Because of her disabilities Brianna was entirely dependent on others.
In court her mother could not recall the last time she had fed or changed Brianna's diaper and said she had not been bathed in over a week, the Post Crescent reports.
The officer who found Brianna described her room as smelling of "rotten food, human waste and death."
Her diaper weighed 1.25 pounds (0.5 kilograms) when she was found.
If found guilty Gussert could face the maximum penalty of 25 years in jail for a child neglect charge in the United States.
She is yet to enter a plea.
Newshub.
