A 19-month-old Houston girl was burned to death by an oven when the toddler’s mother and her mom’s boyfriend left three children home alone, police said.
A juvenile court judge ordered the two other children and another one of their siblings, aged 3, 3, and 5, into foster homes Wednesday in a custody hearing a day after J’zyra Thomspon died, Texas Child Protective Services spokeswoman Estella Olguin told the Daily News.
No one from J’zyra’s family showed up for the hearing, Olguin said. Efforts to contact her relatives were unsuccessful.
Gina Dennis, the grandmother of J'zyra Thompson, told KPRC-TV that she doesn't know what happened when the children were left alone at the northeast Houston apartment.
Police officers found J’zyra dead with severe burn marks when they arrived to the home in the Angel Ridge Apartments on Sterlingshire St. in northeast Houston at 12:30 Tuesday morning, according to the Houston Police Department.
Investigators believe the three children had been playing with the oven, and the officers discovered J’zyra’s burned body right next to it. Detectives consider the death accidental after questioning and releasing her mom and the boyfriend, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Police hadn’t filed any charges in the investigation Wednesday. J’zyra’s mother had left the children with her boyfriend when she went to work Monday night,KPRC-TV reported.
The other three children’s next custody hearing is slated for Dec. 2, Olguin noted, expressing hope that J’zyra’s family would attend to testify in the case.
“The big concern was that the children were often left home alone,” Olguin said. “You would never want to leave children this age home alone.”
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