EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — An East St. Louis mother has been charged in St. Clair County in the deaths of her five children in an apartment fire in August, according to online court records.
Sabrina Dunigan, 34, faces five counts of endangering the life/health of a child, a felony. Online court records indicate there are pending grand jury actions in the case.
Dunigan’s five children, all younger than 10, died in the apartment fire Aug. 6. The blaze was reported about 3 a.m. on the second floor of an apartment building.
St. Clair County Coroner Calvin Dye Sr. said at the time that four of the children were found dead inside the apartment building and a fifth died at a hospital.
The fire has been under investigation by the Illinois state fire marshal’s office.
The children’s grandfather, Greg Dunigan, and his wife said at the time that they jumped from the apartment’s second floor while Sabrina Dunigan was away picking up her boyfriend.
Fire officials initially indicated the children had been left home alone, but Greg Dunigan said he and his wife live in a separate part of the apartment and woke to the smoke. He said flames forced him back, and he couldn’t get to the grandchildren. The family of eight was staying in the one-bedroom apartment, Greg Dunigan said.
The children who died were Loy-el Dunigan, 2; Jabari Johnson, 4; twin 8-year-old girls, Heaven and Neveah “Veah” Dunigan; and Deontae Davis, 9.
Sabrina Dunigan and her father both previously told the Post-Dispatch they suspect it was an electrical fire and said the cramped apartment lacked smoke detectors. The landlord countered, saying he put smoke detectors in all of his rental properties.
Sabrina Dunigan had returned to the apartment about 3 a.m. that day, her birthday, to find her apartment filled with smoke and fire, she has said. Dunigan said she suffered burns on her arms and feet trying to reach her children but couldn’t save them.
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