Police responding to reports of a wandering child at a Bergen County apartment complex found the child’s mother dead inside of her unit.

County prosecutors say Dumont police were called to the Knickerbocker Road complex early Tuesday morning. After officers learned the 5-year-old’s mother lived there, the woman’s sister told them the 36-year-old victim, identified as Michelle Burns, wasn’t answering her phone.

Officers soon entered the woman’s apartment and found her body. She had been stabbed in the neck, but authorities say a cause of death has not been determined.

The woman’s boyfriend, identified as Jeffrey Daniels, was soon found walking in nearby Closter with the victim’s two younger children. Police say that he was attempting to knock on the front door of a home when he was taken into custody.

The children with Daniels were taken to the hospital to be checked out, but were not hurt. Daniels was arrested and charged with Burns’ murder. He is being held in the Bergen County Jail pending a court appearance.