Police: Man Intentionally Set Fire To House, Killing 3 Kids In Flint
FLINT (WWJ/AP) - Investigators say a man set a Flint house on fire — killing two teen girls and a young boy — because a woman who was sent to buy drugs didn't return.
Genesee County prosecutor David Leyton calls it a "horrible case."
He announced murder charges Tuesday against Rodney Dale King Jr. and Erica Starkey, the mother of two of the victims.
King, 40, and Starkey, 39, met on a street in the early hours last Friday, according to police.
Leyton said the pair smoked crack cocaine at Starkey's home, in the 600-block of Vermilya Ave. on the city's south side, before Starkey left to buy more drugs.
The prosecutor said King set furniture on fire when Starkey didn't return.
MLive.com reported Monday that 14-year-old Brianna Beaushaw died Sunday, two days after 13-year-old Onyah Starkey and her 4-year-old brother, Kaydon Hull were pronounced dead at the scene. Brianna, a friend of Onyah's, was spending the night, police when the fire was set, police said.
King and Starkey were scheduled to appear in court Tuesday. They did not immediately have lawyers on record.
Neighbors told MLive the family had only recently moved in and they didn't know much about them. Just days before the fire neighbors said they found the boy wandering the neighborhood in only a t-shirt.
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