Family: 4-year-old's funeral must wait

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. (WOOD) - Funeral services for a 4-year-old found burned under a porch will have to wait at least a month.

The body of Carnel Chamberlain was found badly burned under the porch of his home Thursday on a Mount Pleasant reservation. He had been missing for a week.

Family spokesman Kevin Chamberlain said in a post on the Carnel's Hope for Tomorrow Facebook page Monday that it will be at least one to three months before a funeral is held.

Chamberlain's post stated that the decision to postpone a funeral was made after a "lengthy discussion with our liaison with the FBI" and in order to "enact justice."

Because Carnel was a member of the Saginaw Chippewa tribe and his body was found on tribal land, the FBI is handling much of the investigation.

Carnel had lived at the Tomah Road home where his body was found with his mother and her boyfriend Anthony Bennett.

Bennett will be in federal court Tuesday afternoon for a detention hearing to determine if he'll remain in federal custody.

He faces charges of assault resulting in substantial bodily injury to a child under 16.

In a criminal complaint filed in the US District Court in Bay City, the FBI claims Carnel's mother told investigators she "understood Anthony Bennett to have assaulted" Carnel more than once.