Texas Parents Charged With Murder in Toddlers' RV Fire Deaths
A couple faces murder charges two months after their two young children died in a blaze that consumed their RV home.
Matthew Allen Chambers, 39, and Meaghan Michelle Herrod, 30, have been charged with two counts of murder in connection with the deaths of their children, Mavryck Len Chambers, 3, and Skylar Jayne Chambers, 2. The toddlers died in an RV fire on August 11 near Cleveland, Texas.
Firefighters responded to the fully engulfed RV shortly after 5 a.m. but found the children deceased by the time they located them. Fire Chief Sean Anderson stated that the parents were in the vicinity of the fire at the time, and their presence is a focus of the ongoing investigation. The circumstances leading to the fire and the subsequent murder charges have not been fully detailed.
The couple's older child, 10-year-old Harlee Layne Chambers, was at a grandparent's home at the time of the incident. An obituary described Mavryck and Skylar as "inseparable in life by an unmistakable closeness, a love so deep and true."
Matthew Chambers had previously been arrested and jailed three times between 2016 and 2019 on charges including child abandonment and endangerment, according to Liberty County jail records. Following the fire, Chambers created an online fundraiser to help rebuild their lives, which had raised $20 toward a $10,000 goal as of Monday.
The parents' bonds have each been set at $1,000,000.