Hours before a Pasadena man drove to his father’s house with a small, decomposing body in his car, police arrived at his home to check on his 10-year-old son.

The boy’s mother, Tina Louise Madrid, assured Pasadena police around 11 p.m. on Saturday that her son, who had cerebral palsy, was fine. He had gone with his father, Jeffrey Singer, to visit his grandfather.

Singer arrived at his father’s house five hours later, a foul smell filling his sport utility vehicle from a cardboard box in the back.

It was the body of Jonathan Singer.

Jeffrey Singer ””made a comment to his father that something bad had happened … that his son had been killed,”” Pasadena Police Department spokesman Vance Mitchell said.

The grandfather called police, who searched the car.

“”When they opened it up, they picked up a foul odor,”” Mitchell said. “”Then they backed away and called the medical examiner’s office.””

The Harris County Institute of Forensic Science ran the box through an X-ray machine and determined that a body was inside. It weighed between 35 and 40 pounds, Mitchell said.

Singer, 45, and Madrid, 41, were arrested Sunday. Singer has been charged in connection with Jonathan’s death. He was charged with injury to a child by omission.

Although a medical examination had not yet “”positively”” determined the identity of the body by Sunday night, police were confident enough to request charges against the parents, Mitchell said.

A neighbor of the family’s former home in Seabrook said Jonathan was blind, ate through a feeding tube and was sometimes seen in a stroller. The neighbor, who did not want to be identified, said she was shocked to learn of Jonathan’s death.

“”That poor little boy,”” she said. “”He didn’t deserve that.””

Singer and Madrid have been married since Nov. 25, 1997, according to court records. Their 15-year-old daughter was safe with relatives, Mitchell said.

Texas Child Protective Services was looking into the case, spokeswoman Gwen Carter said. It was not clear Sunday whether the family had a history with the department, she said.

Singer, Madrid and their children had moved from their Seabrook home on Palm Bay Circle after a fire there in 2009, the neighbor said. The home was left in disrepair, with neighbors complaining that it was hurting their property values, according to city records.

The family was most recently staying in a Pasadena apartment on Space Center Boulevard. That was where police came to check on Jonathan’s whereabouts after a concerned call from his uncle.

Investigators began questioning Singer and Jonathan’s grandfather about 4 a.m. Singer told police that Jonathan was with him in the vehicle, but was not alive.

A spokesman at the medical examiner’s office said it “”may take awhile”” to identify the boy due to the condition of the body. A pathologist is expected to determine how long the victim had been deceased.

“”That would be part of the investigation, which I’m not going to speculate on,”” Mitchell said.