A divorced father and the seven children he was trying to raise on a kitchen worker’s salary died in their sleep of carbon monoxide poisoning days after the power company cut off electricity to the rental home after finding a stolen meter, police said Tuesday.
Delmarva Power said it did not cut off the family’s electricity because they were behind on their bills, but for safety reasons after discovering the illegal connection on March 25.
Rodney Todd, 36, then bought a gas-powered generator and installed it in his kitchen to keep his two sons and five daughters warm. Friends and relatives last saw them alive on March 28.
“The children were all in beds and it appears as though they were sleeping,” Princess Anne town Police Chief Scott Keller said. “Probably it was bedtime and they decided they needed some light and probably some heat, because toward the end of March even though it was spring we were having some pretty chilly nights.”
Police found the bodies Monday inside the one-story wood-frame home on Maryland’s Eastern Shore after school workers, friends and Todd’s co-workers knocked on the door with no answer.
“I’m just numb. Like it’s a nightmare but it’s not,” the children’s mother, Tyisha Luneice Chambers, said Tuesday. “If I had known he was without electricity, I would have helped.”
Why Todd had a generator running indoors wasn’t clear. Keller ruled out foul play, and speculated that had it been outside, the noise would have bothered neighbors.
The utility’s statement didn’t say whether Todd had made any arrangements with Delmarva Power or any other authorities or social workers to restore electricity after the illegal meter was removed.
Sen. James Mathias Jr., a Democrat who represents Princess Anne, addressed Maryland’s legislature on Tuesday, asking his fellow lawmakers to work with agencies and neighborhood groups to make certain the eight deaths were not in vain.
While Todd got some welfare money, it wasn’t enough to pay the bills, his close friend Sarah Hardy said Tuesday morning.
“How can a man survive off of basically minimum wage with seven kids, and you can’t help him with a utility bill?” Hardy asked. “This man was working. And Delmarva Power cuts the lights off?”
The utility said Tuesday that the rental home never had legal power while the Todds lived there. It said the electricity had been disconnected in October, and there was no request to reconnect it after the family moved there in November.
“Through the use of smart meter technology, Delmarva Power discovered a stolen electric meter was being used at the home on March 25, 2015. Delmarva Power disconnected the illegally connected meter for safety reasons and to comply with standard protocol. Delmarva Power did not disconnect electric service at this address for nonpayment,” its statement said.
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