Insets (left to right): Matthew Chambers and Meaghan Herrod (Liberty County Sheriff's Office). Background: News footage of the area where two children died in a fire (KTRK).
Two Texas parents have been charged with murder after authorities said their two children died in an RV fire.
Matthew Chambers, 39, and Meaghan Herrod, 30, are both in custody at the Liberty County Jail after they were each charged with two counts of murder. According to reporting by local ABC affiliate KTRK, warrants were issued for their arrests two months after their children, a 2-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy, died in a fire that started in an RV on a property in Cleveland, Texas.
Online jail records indicated that the fire took place on Aug. 11. KTRK reported that 911 calls placed that day stated that an RV was "engulfed" in flames and that there were people inside. The outlet spoke to Cleveland Fire Chief Sean Anderson, who said firefighters went into the RV to find those people, even as the RV collapsed around them.
Fire department officials confirmed that the two people found dead inside were the young siblings. The children's grandfather confirmed their ages to KTRK.
According to fire department officials, the RV that caught fire was one of several similar vehicles on the property where the children's family and their friends all lived. Anderson told KTRK that officials determined that Chambers and Herrod were "in the area of the fire at the time." He did not share any additional details about what led to the murder charges, but said the investigation was ongoing.
Chambers and Herrod are each being held on $1 million bond, $500,000 for each murder charge. Their next court date was not immediately available.