By Gabriela Resto-Montero
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MIDTOWN — Ten days after police discovered his lifeless body in a suite at The Peninsula Hotel, the remains of 8-year-old Jude Mirra linger at the Medical Examiner's Office while his family argues over funeral arrangements.
Jude's biological father, Emil Tzekov, traveled from California to New York to claim his body after his mother, Gigi Jordan, allegedly gave the boy an overdose of prescription pills before attempting to kill herself on Feb. 5.
Tzekov arranged for the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home to handle the funeral, but a day later Jude's body was returned to the Medical Examiner's office after his maternal grandmother challenged Tzekov's custody.
"It was a family disagreement," said Ellen Borakove, spokesperson with the Medical Examiner's office. "They have to decide between them the funeral arrangements."
In cases where the family argues over arrangements, the office acts as a neutral party, Borakove said.
While the family argues, the boy lies in a bag in one of four rooms in the Kips Bay morgue, the air temperature hovering between 32 and 40 degrees, surrounded by other corpses.
Jude's mother remains on suicide watch at psychiatric ward of Elmhurst Hospital, the New York Post reported. She is expected to be arraigned on murder charges Tuesday and is also expected to plead not guilty in Manhattan Court via video from the hospital.
Jordan, a 49-year-old multimillionaire pharmaceutical executive, dragged her son across the country during his short life in search of a cure for his severe autism, friends said.
She withdrew from friends and family and spent the last days of her life allegedly holed up in the five-star Peninsula Hotel in Midtown, feeding an overdose of prescription pills to her son.
