Father and his seven children found dead at home after using heater
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 07 April, 2015, 5:28pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 07 April, 2015, 5:28pm
Associated Press in Maryland
The power was cut off to the deceased family's home, prompting the father to buy a heater, according to relatives. Photo: AFP
A father and his seven children were found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning in the United States apparently after he bought a heater to “keep his children warm” when their power got cut off.
Police found the bodies at the home in Princess Anne town, in the state of Maryland, after being contacted by a worried colleague of the father, who had not been seen for days, local police said in a statement.
Authorities identified the deceased as an adult and seven young people aged six to the teens. The cause of the deaths is still under investigation.
The deceased man’s mother, Bonnie Edwards, and stepfather Lloyd Edwards, speaking to an Associated Press reporter outside the home under investigation, identified the dead father as Rodney Todd, 36, who had five daughters and two sons.
Bonnie Edwards identified the children as boys Cameron, 13, and Zycheim, seven; and girls Tynijuiza, 15; Tykira, 12; Tybree, 10; Tyania, nine; and Tybria, six.
Todd was a utility worker at the nearby University of Maryland Eastern Shore, according to his supervisor Stephanie Wells. Wells, who hadn’t seen Todd since March 28, said she went to the house on Monday and knocked on the door, but no one answered.
She then filed a missing-person report with the police.
Lloyd Edwards said that when police told them Todd had died, “It was disbelief. It’s so hard. How can you understand something like that?”
He said Delmarva Power had cut off the electricity to the house because of an outstanding bill.
“To keep his seven children warm, [Todd] bought a generator,” Lloyd Edwards said. Quoting what police told them, he added: “It went out and the carbon monoxide consumed them.”
Princess Anne Police Chief Scott Keller said there was a generator in the kitchen that was out of petrol.
Matt Likovich, a spokesman for Delmarva Power, would not say whether the power had been cut off. He said the matter was being investigated.
Bonnie Edwards described her son as a loving, caring young man who set an example for his children. “I don’t know anyone his age who would have done what he did” for his children, she said. “I was so proud to say he took care of seven kids.”
