Father, 7 children die; carbon monoxide suspected

Phil Davis and Vanessa Junkin | The (Salisbury, Md.) Daily Times

Show Caption Hide Caption Dad and 7 children die of carbon monoxide poisoning Police suspect a gas-powered generator inside a home's kitchen led to the carbon monoxide poisoning of 8 people. Seven of the victims were children, ranging in age from 6 to 16 years old.

PRINCESS ANNE, Md. — A father and his seven children died Monday afternoon from suspected carbon monoxide poisoning at the family's home, emergency officials said.

Princess Anne Police Chief Scott Keller said the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore will make final determination on cause of death. There was no sign of foul play, he said. The children's mother, Tyisha Chambers, 36, was notified of the deaths.

Bonnie and Lloyd Edwards, encountered outside the home by a reporter from The Associated Press, identified themselves as the mother and stepfather of Rodney Todd, 36, whom they identified as the adult who died. They said Todd had seven children, including five girls and two boys. The Edwardses said police told them the family died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

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

Lloyd Edwards said when police told them Todd had died, "It was disbelief."

"It's so hard. How can you understand something like that?"

He said Delmarva Power had cut off the electricity to the house because of an outstanding bill.

"To keep his seven children warm, (Todd) bought a generator," Lloyd Edwards said. "It went out and the carbon monoxide consumed them."

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

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."

Keller said police were sent to the Antioch Avenue home at about 1 p.m. ET Monday to check on Todd, who had not shown up for work. A co-worker filed a police report, asking officers to check on the family.

Stephanie Wells, food service supervisor at the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, said she last saw him March 28, which was the last day anyone had spoken to any of the victims.

Todd had worked at the university since August 2014.

Wells said he was a nice and helpful person who would always talk about his kids. "He was my big teddy bear," she said.

When Todd didn't come into work Saturday and didn't call as he usually would, Wells became concerned. And although she contacted police, she said wasn't expecting the sad outcome.

Inside the victims' home, police said, they found a gas generator in the kitchen that had run out of fuel. The house did not have electricity. "You can draw your own conclusions," Keller said.

When police entered the dwelling, they could tell something was wrong.

"They knew they weren't going to find any live people in there," Keller said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, unintentional exposure to carbon monoxide caused an average of 430 deaths a year nationwide between 1999 and 2010. Maryland averaged 1.43 deaths per 1 million people from the gas from 1999 to 2004, while the national rate was 1.53 deaths.

A 2006 gas leak at an Ocean City hotel took the lives of a father and a daughter, who succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning. The Ocean City Town Council amended its 2007 law mandating carbon monoxide detectors in hotels and condo buildings, removing an exemption that allowed some units not to have them.

Onlookers gathered and consoled each other as police began removing the eight bodies from the home Monday afternoon.

Emergency officials said crisis counselors will be spread throughout the Somerset County Public School system this week to help with grieving students.

Contributing: Jeremy Cox, The (Salisbury, Md.) Daily Times, and The Associated Press