Background: Police examine the state of a residence on Floran Street in Columbia, S.C. (WIS/YouTube). Insets, left to right: Zana Oden and Malik Locke (Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center).
A South Carolina mother and father are facing criminal charges after authorities say their young children were left alone inside a cockroach-infested home as a fire broke out.
Zana Oden, 28, and Malik Locke, 21, have each been charged with three counts of neglect by a legal custodian, Richland County jail records reviewed by Law&Crime show. Oden is being held at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center on a $300,000 bond, while Locke’s bond has been set at $200,000.
Around 9:30 p.m. Monday, Columbia Police Department officers said they responded to the residence and found smoke coming from the home. Fire crews were already on scene and forced entry, where they “immediately encountered heavy smoke and rapidly deteriorating interior conditions.”
The blaze was burning in the front portion of the Floran Street house in Columbia, South Carolina, according to local NBC and The CW affiliate WIS, and firefighters discovered three children — ages 6, 4 and 2 — “in and near several bedrooms” while working to bring the fire under control.
Police said first responders “quickly” removed the children from the home and treated them for “severe burn injuries.” The children were initially taken to a local hospital before being transferred to the Augusta Burn Center in Georgia.
As of Tuesday evening, all three children were still listed in “critical but stable condition” and receiving specialized care, according to police.
Authorities said no adults were inside the residence when the fire started. Investigators later located Oden at an apartment roughly a mile away on Ripplemeyer Avenue, where they allege she attempted to “evade arrest by hiding inside a closet.”
She was arrested. It is unclear if Locke was also at the apartment on Ripplemeyer.
Locke is the father of one of the children, while Oden is the mother of all three, according to the local outlet. During a bond hearing on Wednesday, prosecutors alleged the children were home alone for at least a week before the fire.
The youngest child was very malnourished, and one of the kids had insects in her diaper, authorities said. A victims’ advocate reportedly claimed that Oden admitted to leaving the home but tried to come back until she saw police and fled again, while Locke’s attorney said he had been kicked out of the house.
“We had knowledge that she was in the area,” Columbia Deputy Police Chief Melron Kelly said of Oden, per area CBS affiliate WLTX. “Even after knowing what had happened here, she still did not contact law enforcement; she still didn’t contact family members.”
Authorities allege that Locke knew the fire was blazing, too, and warned Oden about police.
Columbia Fire Chief Aubrey D. Jenkins said the conditions inside the home were “deplorable,” adding that there were “big roaches … an army of roaches” in the home “getting all over these kids.”
Authorities reportedly suggested additional charges could be coming for the mother and father.
