Lee Saco said the boy and his mother came into Romulus Liquor regularly for about a year and a half. But four times during the past week the boy uncharacteristically walked about a block to the store by himself sometimes through Arctic cold and other times wearing pajama bottoms.

"I questioned him, 'Where is your mom?'" Saco said when the boy first came into the store by himself to buy milk, chips, candy and bread with cash. During the next two visits, he said the boy bought a number of items.

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Saco said he was curious from the beginning but his concern heightened on Monday when the boy tried to buy grocery items with his mother's credit card.

Saco then asked the boy if he could speak to his mother. "Is she alive?" Saco asked the boy.

"She's in a better place," the boy replied, who later told Saco he'd tried to revive his mother by pushing on her chest in an apparent attempt at CPR.

"I sat him down, gave him chocolate milk. Then I called the police," Saco said.

Police arrived and took the boy home. They called Saco about 10 minutes later to tell him the boy's mother was dead.

The boy was home-schooled, has no siblings and his father died several years ago, authorities said. The child is in foster care while police try to locate his other relatives, Romulus police Lt. John Leacher said.