On Tuesday morning, Houston police found a 19-month-old toddler burned to death after playing with an oven.
The toddler, along with her three other young siblings, had been left home alone by her mother and her mother’s boyfriend, reports the NY Daily News.
Investigators believe that the children, aged 3, 3, and 5, had been playing with the oven, and detectives believe the death was accidental.
The child’s mother had left the children with her boyfriend on Monday night when she went to work. Since the death of the toddler, J’zyra Thomspon, a judge ordered the children into foster care, with hearings scheduled for December 2. No criminal charges have been filed, as the death was considered accidental, though there is concern that this was not the first time the children had been left alone at such a young age.
“The big concern was that the children were often left home alone,” Texas Child Protective Services spokeswoman Estella Olguin told the Daily News. “You would never want to leave children this age home alone.”
Olguin said that she hoped J’zyra’s family would be able to attend the hearings.
J’zyra’s grandmother, Gina Dennis, said that “we don’t know exactly what happened” the night J’zyra died.
“She was a sweet baby,” Dennis said. “This is unexplainable, so, I have no words.”