Remains from N.M. compound ID’D; cause of death mystery

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Forensic investigators said Thursday that they had identified the remains of a Georgia boy whose father is accused of abducting him and performing purification rituals on the child as he died at a remote New Mexico desert compound. But the cause of the child’s death remained a mystery.

The body of Abdul-ghani Wahhaj, found Aug. 6 in an underground tunnel, was so decomposed that the investigators could not determine how the severely disabled boy had died, New Mexico’s Office of the Medical Examiner said in a statement.

A spokeswoman for the office said it will examine the body and where the remains were located to determine a cause and manner of death. A prosecutor said no charges regarding the death are imminent because officials don’t know how the boy died.

“All we have is a positive ID,” said Donald Gallegos, the district attorney for Taos County in northern New Mexico. “We’ll need something else — actual cause of death, manner of death.”

Authorities have said they believe Abdul-ghani died in February, when he was 3. He was reported missing in December.

The boy’s father, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, was among five people arrested on suspicion of child abuse at the compound near the Colorado state line, where authorities say 11 hungry children were found living in filth during a raid this month. Subsequent interviews led sheriff ’s deputies to the body in a tunnel.

Prosecutors seeking to keep Sarij Ibn Wahhaj and four members of his extended family behind bars had said in court that Wahhaj had been teaching some children at the compound how to use firearms and carry out attacks on an anti-government mission that might target schools.

An FBI agent, citing interviews with two children from the compound, said Abdul-ghani died as relatives performed a ritual to cast out demonic spirits while reading from the Quran.

An order from District Court Judge Sarah Backus on Monday cleared the way for the release of three defendants on house arrest with ankle monitors. But they had not been released as of Thursday amid concerns about their safety, in part stemming from threats of violence against Backus.