A woman was jailed for shoplifting. Weeks later, her mother got back a decaying corpse

Melinda Bettencourt was still in her nightgown when the police showed up at the door. It was a slow Saturday morning last fall, but her heart raced when she heard the uneasy tone in the officer's voice.

The Fresno woman knew her youngest daughter, Amanda Bews, had been struggling for years. After battling a painful nerve condition, the 29-year-old started using drugs and had taken to living on the street. Eventually Bettencourt lost track of her. So when men with badges showed up at her home, Bettencourt feared she knew why — and she was right.

Bews had been arrested on a pair of misdemeanor charges, and died in a Los Angeles County jail two days later. But the officer who showed up at her door couldn't tell Bettencourt anything about how her daughter died.

And a few weeks later, no one could explain what had happened to the rotting