Rodney Todd (36) died from carbon monoxide poisoning along with his son Cameron (13) and six more of his children

[luvit]

PRINCESS ANNE, Md. -- A man found dead with his seven children in a Maryland home where power was cut due to an outstanding bill had tried to keep the family warm with a generator, a relative said.

Lloyd Edwards told The Associated Press that his stepson, 36-year-old Rodney Todd, had bought the generator after the power was shut off to the home in Princess Anne on Maryland's Eastern Shore. He said those who died were Todd and Todd's two sons and five daughters.

"To keep his seven children warm, (Todd) bought a generator," Edwards said, adding, "The carbon monoxide consumed them."

Authorities had no immediate information on the cause of the deaths.

Lloyd and Bonnie Edwards spoke with an AP reporter outside the home, identifying themselves as the mother and stepfather of the 36-year-old Todd, whom they identified as the adult who died.

Princess Anne Police Chief Scott Keller told The AP a generator was found without gasoline in the home's kitchen when the bodies were found Monday.

A police statement said only that the cause of the deaths remains under investigation and it identified the victims as an adult and seven children from 6 years old to the teens, without naming them.

Matt Likovich, a spokesman for Delmarva Power, would not say Monday night whether the power had been cut off. He said the matter is being investigated.

People hugged each other and looked on somberly outside the home Monday as police officers stood by and investigators went through the house. The home was encircled with yellow police tape wrapped around some trees in the yard.

"It's so hard," the stepfather said.

Police said in a statement that officers went to the home after being contacted by the man's co-worker, anxious that the man hadn't been seen in days.

Bonnie Edwards, Todd's mother, identified the man's children as boys Cameron, 13, and Zycheim, 7; and girls Tynijuiza, 15; Tykira, 12; Tybree, 10; Tyania, 9; and Tybria, 6.

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."

Todd was a utility worker at the nearby University of Maryland Eastern Shore, said his supervisor Stephanie Wells.

Wells, who hadn't seen Todd since March 28, said she went to the house Monday morning and knocked on the door, but no one answered. She then filed a missing person report with police.

http://6abc.com/news/relatives-man-7...soning/635398/

[PeaceBeWithMe]

http://mydeathspace.com/article/2015...f_his_children

[Boston Babe 73]

So sad. A 25 year old Woman less than a mile from me died yesterday from CO Poisoning. Her Mother went to the grocery store and when she returned found her unresponsive. Paramedics couldn't revive her. They determined that the water heater wasn't properly ventilated

Check your appliances and get CO Detectors!

[becoming]

This is why I'm so glad we don't have any natural gas in our house at all. My parents have a gas stove, and even their central heat is run on natural gas. I smell gas in their house all the time, and it freaks me out. They have carbon monoxide detectors, but it still scares me. Although I guess there are worse ways to go than to die in your sleep and exit the world at the same time as your whole family.

[luvit]

Thanks for adding Facebook links Peace I don't have Facebook so cant search for them.

[PeaceBeWithMe]

You're welcome.

[emylou]

Wow that is shocking. So sad.

[UncomfortablyNumb]

This shit scares me. It seems like there aren't any warning signs. (Unless you have a CO detector) You just go to sleep one night and don't wake up.

[YayMe]

Aren't generators expensive? Why not just pay the power bill?

[Boston Babe 73]

Aren't generators expensive? Why not just pay the power bill?

The reports said the power went out. Not that they didn't pay the bill.

ETA: Sorry, you're right but it could be a BIG amount owed. Have you paid electric lately? Especially electric heat over the Winter

[YayMe]

The reports said the power went out. Not that they didn't pay the bill.

ETA: Sorry, you're right but it could be a BIG amount owed. Have you paid electric lately? Especially electric heat over the Winter

Yes, I pay electric every month. Including the winter ;). Here, at least, they won't let you go more than a month without cutting that shit off lol. I mean, it didn't say he bought a new generator. Maybe he got a good deal on Craigslist or something. I still just think, if he had taken that chunk of cash down to the utility office, made a payment and asked for help, this could have been avoided.

[Boston Babe 73]

Yes, I pay electric every month. Including the winter ;). Here, at least, they won't let you go more than a month without cutting that shit off lol. I mean, it didn't say he bought a new generator. Maybe he got a good deal on Craigslist or something. I still just think, if he had taken that chunk of cash down to the utility office, made a payment and asked for help, this could have been avoided.

There's new models out there for under $200, actually closer to $150. If he had a huge bill, I probably wouldn't make a dent and utility companies aren't always willing to do payment plans. Regardless, a CO Detector is how it really could have been prevented. It's still an unforeseen circumstance that could have been caused because of many reasons. I'm just thinking that there are likely parts of this story we don't know. I'm sure if spending the money toward the bill would have turned his heat back on that he would have gone that route. Who is going to go through the trouble of getting a generator if all they have to do is start a payment plan?

There's a reason that the electric company doesn't want to comment.

[marycontrary]

Good grief. He was running a gasoline powered generator in the kitchen? I imagine the first sentence in the manual says something to the effect of do not use in a closed space and place 10 feet from any structure.

I have no idea how they were able to sleep in a home with a generator running inside. Those suckers are loud. My next door neighbor has a generator that automatically kicks in when power is cut. It will kick on with any interruption of power and it sounds like a jack hammer outside.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/...d-home-n336756

Basically the same story, but a comment from his stepfather

"To keep his seven children warm, [Todd] bought a generator," Lloyd Edwards told the AP. "It went out, and the carbon monoxide consumed them."

It almost seems like he is blaming the generator going out for the co buildup. Sadly, reality is it ran out of gas unattended because they were all dead.

Then there is this puzzling comment

Family friend Stephanie Wells also told NBC News that the family's power had been shut off because of an unpaid bill. "I just feel that the system failed him," Wells said. "They didn't reach out to help him with his utility bills."

This was some sort of a fucked up Darwin award

[Olivia]

How did nobody miss 8 people for over a week? Do schools not check if 7 siblings don't turn up?

[Olivia]

And this article says he never asked for power to be connected - http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/...-never-n337341

But Delmarva, a utility company that services Maryland and Delaware, said in a statement Tuesday that in October of last year the owner of the home requested that service be disconnected. Keller said the Todd family moved into the home the next month, and Delmarva's statement said "there was no request to reconnect service."

Delmarva disconnected a stolen electric meter at the family's address on March 25, but did not cease service because of missed payments, said Matt Likovich, a media relations manager for the utility.

[Boston Babe 73]

How did nobody miss 8 people for over a week? Do schools not check if 7 siblings don't turn up?

It's been Spring Break over here. Kids probably didn't have school.

[animosity]

so he was stealing electricity all this time and they figured it out and put an end to it. hmmm.

[Olivia]

It's been Spring Break over here. Kids probably didn't have school.

Okay that makes sense. I wonder where the children's mother is.

[YayMe]

And this article says he never asked for power to be connected - http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/...-never-n337341

Delmarva disconnected a stolen electric meter at the family's address on March 25, but did not cease service because of missed payments, said Matt Likovich, a media relations manager for the utility.

Oh geeze.

[bermstalker]

The first rule of running a generator is to never run it in any enclosed space- especially inside a house.


Generators can be expensive to run daily. It probably cost him at least 10-15 dollars a day in gas.

[Queena]

That's messed up. He was stealing electricity, and didn't order service, and instead brought a generator? I don't understand the logic.

RIP Children.



Sidenote, they need to regulate the electricity companies in this country. When I left Chicago, I was in for a huge shock. Everyone else in the lower part of the state pays almost double what Chicago pays. Imagine paying a $500 utility bill every month. There are no payment plans, no being late, no arguments, they work with who they want, and they can do that because they're privately owned. The state of Illinois has no control over privately owned utility companies. The utility company depends on LIHEAP, as in they schedule shut offs, rate increases, and so forth around the time that LIHEAP helps those with low income. It's so sad, and the saddest part is the residents of a town that's 80% Black can't even work there! I tried to tell them that when LIHEAP is cut, they're going to be fucked, because eventually the Government will have to cut it, the government has money problems too. Instead, they continue to let them screw them around. The State of Illinois won't, or can't change the rules. The only control or oversight that the state has is in Chicago. If any other utility company is like Cairo Public (it's owned by I think 1 person) Utility, I feel so sorry for those that depend on Government programs.

[puzzld]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/mom...li5?ocid=fbmsn
On April 4, the day her baby girl was to turn 6, Tyisha Chambers texted her ex-husband.

She asked to speak with her youngest daughter, Tybreyia Todd. Chambers hadn?t lived with her children for three years, but on their birthdays, she always talked to them.

Her text went unanswered. Two days later, Chambers got the news about seven of her children, including Tybreyia.

?I don?t know if she made 6,? Chambers said Wednesday.

Along with her ex-husband, Rodney Todd, 36, the five girls and two boys had all been found dead in their tiny rented ranch house in Princess Anne, about 60 miles from her own home in Denton, on Maryland?s Eastern Shore.

Investigators determined that Todd and his children had died in their sleep from the carbon monoxide produced by a generator he set up to power the 1,056-square-foot home. He had apparently been relying on the machine since Delmarva Power discovered what it described as a ?stolen electric meter? attached to the home and removed it on March 25.

[Carbon monoxide blamed after father and his 7 children die in their sleep]

?When they told me, I felt like I died,? Chambers said. ?In the last two days, I may have gotten a total of five hours of sleep. When I wake up, I think, ?Is this happening? God, you could?ve taken me and not my babies.? No matter how good or bad a person the world perceives me as, I would sell my soul to trade places with my babies.?

Lost were her boys Cameron, 13, and Zhi?Heem Todd, 7; and her girls Tyjuziana, 15; Ty?Keria, 12; Ty?Nijuzia, 11; Ty?Niah, 9; and Tybreyia Todd.

Last year, Chambers, 36, ended her tumultuous marriage to Todd, who at times had fought violently with her. In 2011, Chambers accused him of stabbing her in the face. He was later convicted of second-degree assault and spent a year in jail and 18 months on probation.

On Wednesday, the scar still showed on her chin. But Chambers, tall and thin and dressed in black, refused to speak ill of him.

?Their dad was a good father to them,? she said. ?He was my ex-husband. And I truly loved him.?

Her only surviving child, 17-year-old Rodney Todd Jr., was named after his stepfather.

?He said he is naked without his siblings,? she said. ?He misses his stepdad. He wishes he were still here. ?

Chambers, who was born in Denton, said she met Todd in 1997. She saw his picture at a friend?s house. ?I said, ?I?ve got to have him.? We met and just clicked. I wanted a big family. We got married in 2007. We stayed together 15 years.?

After the divorce, she said, her visitation was limited, but she would still provide financial support and stop by Todd?s home to see them. Chambers, who works as a dietitian at a nursing home, said she didn?t know that they had lost their electricity.

?That saddens my heart,? she said. ?I know Rodney likes to hold his pride. If he told me, ?Me and the kids didn?t have electricity,? I would?ve given him my last cents. But I didn?t know.?

The allegations of a ?stolen electric meter? also perplexed her.

On Tuesday, a Delmarva spokesman said the company discovered two weeks ago that a meter had been stolen from a vacant house and attached to the rental, enabling a connection to an adjacent power line. The spokesman said the company does not know who stole the meter or installed it.

In the small living room of her home, she and relatives tried to understand what had happened. They said Todd didn?t have the expertise to hook up an electric meter.

?I don?t understand why the landlord didn?t find out about a stolen meter on that house,? said Chambers?s cousin, Teresa Downes. ?It?s just a weird situation.?

The home is owned by Gilkerson Properties. When reached by phone this week, Christopher S. Gilkerson said he had been advised by his attorney not to comment.

On Wednesday, the family also tried to piece together the Todd family?s final days.

Investigators said they were last seen March 28. That, Chambers said, was the first day of spring break and would have explained why no one at the kids? schools noticed their absence.

Their bodies were discovered only after one of Todd?s bosses at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, where he worked in dining services, reported him missing.

?If it wasn?t for the supervisor from the University of Maryland,? Downes said, ?they would still be in there.?

Chambers wouldn?t discuss her chaotic marriage or why, after it ended, she didn?t wind up with custody. She wished only to speak of her kids.

Like a family friend had done a day earlier, Chambers offered brief but vivid biographies of each child.

Tyjuziana was a popular ninth-grader. ?She was my princess,? Chambers said. ?She always wanted to look pretty. ?

Cameron, an eighth-grader, had already grown to 6-foot-3. ?We called him Pun,? she said. ?He was all about basketball. He lived, ate and breathed basketball.?

Ty?Keria, 12, went by Kayla. ?Pretty, pretty,? Chambers said.

Ty?Nijuzia, 11: ?We called her ?Eyes.? She was sweet,? said her mother. ?My little sweet daughter. She has big eyes like me, if not bigger. She always wanted to make me laugh.?

Ty?Niah, 9: ?She?s so great at school,? Chambers said. ?She always liked to keep her grades up. We called her Duker.?

Zhi?Heem was in first grade. ?We called him Bart,? she said. ?As a kid, he was always doing stuff like Bart on ?The Simpsons.? His birthday was March 20. So we know he made it to 7.?

Tybreyia was nicknamed ?Bree Bree.? ?I felt like she was the last of my cubs,? her mother said. ?She was my baby.?

The ?Ty? at the beginning of five of their names was Todd?s idea, she said. He did it to honor her. She last saw all seven of them together at Christmas.

Chambers said her uncle is paying for the girls? burial clothes. She still needs help paying for the funeral, which will be held at 1 p.m. April 18 at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

For the service, she intends to dress them all in white so they look like angels.

?Innocence means purity,? she said. ?Innocent is what they were.?

[animosity]

Chambers wouldn't discuss her chaotic marriage or why, after it ended, she didn't wind up with custody. She wished only to speak of her kids.

the only thing anyone actually wants to know. i mean, how bad was she if the courts only allowed minimal visitation when he has stabbed her in the face and was regularly violent towards her?

waaaah! all my babies are dead!

[blighted star]

Why would the landlord, Gilkerson Properties have been advised by lawyers not to speak to anyone? If this was a simple case of a tenant stealing from a utility company how could there be any legal risk to the landlord?

If Rodney Todd's family say he didn' t have the expertise to rig it & the landlord's refusing questions on the basis of legal advice, is there any possibility he signed a lease where he paid extra to the landlord for utilities & the landlord profited by rigging up free electricity without the tenants knowledge?

Asking because I lived in a private rental that had something weird going on with a hookup to a 2nd & third property the landlord owned out the back of my place. A year after I moved out I got a massive refund because they'd somehow put 2 meter boxes on my house & had 2 other houses hooked up to the house I was in. I don't really know how many people I was paying for because it was semi-rural & we were surrounded by their relatives houses as well. It was totally dodgy - shortest lease of my entire life. When it first started happening the electricity bastards tried to tell me I used our heater too much (as in a leap from $180 to over $1000 a month too much). Not bloody likely but of course no-one believed me. I assume they eventually took a proper look when I kept insisting I had 2 seperate meter boxes, but we were long gone by then.

[Queena]

the only thing anyone actually wants to know. i mean, how bad was she if the courts only allowed minimal visitation when he has stabbed her in the face and was regularly violent towards her?

waaaah! all my babies are dead!

I was thinking the same thing. I'm wondering about the landlords statement. Wouldn't "Utilities are the responsibility of the renter" have said everything? Were utilities provided? It takes skill, and knowledge of electricity to hook a meter to a power line, and house