A 15-year-old boy who is accused of sparking a deadly fire at his Loganville home on Easter Sunday later went to a Conyers church and confessed to his alleged crime, authorities revealed Thursday.
The Rockdale County Sheriff’s Office announced in a news release that the teenager was found at Bethel Christian Church less than four hours after the house fire that killed his 10-year-old sister was reported in Gwinnett County. Deputies described the teen as “bizarre and distressed” when they encountered him at the church in the 1900 block of Bethel Road.
A deputy had to use crisis intervention tactics to talk to the teen, who eventually opened up to authorities after they learned he was a runaway. According to Thursday’s statement, he confessed that he started the blaze.
Ten-year-old Zoe McCue became trapped in her windowless bedroom and died in the fire, according to authorities. The 15-year-old is in custody at a youth detention center. He faces charges of malice murder and felony murder, according to an arrest warrant that accuses the teen of setting the fire intentionally while his family was inside the home.
Troubling signs of abuse and neglect emerged in the aftermath of the fire, officials said. According to case reports from the Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS), the five siblings lived in squalor and rarely left the home. They used buckets as toilets as there was no sewer system in the home, and the children had not been to school in years, DFCS caseworkers alleged.
The 15-year-old boy appeared Thursday with his attorney in a Gwinnett County court, where a state worker described the family’s living conditions to a judge, Channel 2 Action News reported.
The worker said the children were locked in their rooms for long stretches of time and were sometimes prevented from seeing each other. The fire’s aftermath was the 15-year-old’s first time speaking to an adult outside of his home in 10 years, according to his attorney, Yari Lawson.
The judge also heard testimony that the children were malnourished and were not provided medical or dental care, Channel 2 reported. His attorney said the 15-year-old, who had not attended school since he was 6, was frail, walked with a gait and had only once seen a doctor, according to the news station.
According to Channel 2, a state worker told the judge that welts discovered on an 8-year-old sibling’s back “came from when mom whipped him with a belt.”
The 8-year-old and two other siblings, ages 12 and 17, were placed in protective custody while the child abuse allegations are under investigation. A judge on Thursday authorized twice-weekly supervised visits with their parents, according to Channel 2.
No charges have been filed in the abuse investigation as of Friday.
