East St. Louis woman charged in connection with the deaths of her 5 children in a fire
The mother of five children who died in an East St. Louis apartment fire Aug. 6 was charged Wednesday in connection with their deaths.
Sabrina Dunigan of North 29th Street, East St. Louis, is accused of five counts of endangering the life/health of a child, according to charging documents from St. Clair County State’s Attorney Jim Gomric’s office.
The charging documents accuse Dunigan of knowingly causing or permitting a child to be placed in circumstances that endangered the child’s life or health.
The five children were home alone at the time of the fire on the second floor of the two-story, brick building near State Street, Assistant Fire Chief George McClellan said at the time.
Dunigan had briefly left to pick up her boyfriend from work, McClellan said. She reported the fire about 3:45 a.m. when she and her boyfriend were attempting to rescue her children.
Two of the children were found by firefighters in the living room under a pile of burned debris and three were found in the kitchen area.
Deontae Davis Jr., 9; 8-year-old twins Neveah Dunigan and Heaven Dunigan; Jabari Johnson, 4; and Loy’el Dunigan, 2, died on their mother’s birthday.
Four of the children died on scene and one died at a local hospital.
The charging documents from Gomric’s office said the children had been left without adult supervision, which was a proximate cause of her children’s deaths.
A St. Clair County judge set Dunigan’s bail at $75,000. She had not been arrested as of Wednesday afternoon.
The state fire marshal is investigating the cause of the fire.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
This story was originally published November 3, 2021 at 5:38 PM.
