PRINCESS ANNE: A divorced kitchen worker and his seven children were accidentally poisoned to death by carbon monoxide from a generator they used to keep warm after their electricity was cut off, police said on Tuesday.

The Delmarva Power company said it cut off power to the house on March 25 for safety reasons and not because the family was behind on their utility bills.

Delmarva Spokesman Matt Likovich said the utility discovered a stolen electric meter had been illegally connected to the rental home in the small town of Princess Anne on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, where the family was living since November.

Maryland law bars utilities from terminating electric service for nonpayment of bills from Nov 1 through March 31 without an affidavit filed to the Public Service Commission.Rodney Todd, 36, and his two sons and five daughters were last seen alive on March 28. “I’m just numb. I’m just numb.

Like it’s a nightmare but it’s not,” the children’s mother, Tyisha Luneice Chambers, said on Tuesday. “If I had known he was without electricity, I would have helped.

“Police responding to a missing persons report found their bodies on Monday after friends, school workers and Todd’s supervisor at work had knocked on the door with no answer. “The children were all in beds and it appears as though they were sleeping,” Princess Anne Police Chief Scott Keller said.

“They didn’t have electricity. Probably it was bedtime and they decided they needed some light and probably some heat, because toward the end of March even though it was spring we were having some pretty chilly nights.”

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2015

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