Home Scandal and Gossip Grand rapids mom sets home on fire as 3 daughters slept

Grand rapids mom sets home on fire as 3 daughters slept

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Roconda Singleton, Grand Rapids, Michigan mom sets house on fire with her 3 daughters inside, killing 12 year old girl, Shamiya Stewart.
Roconda Singleton, Grand Rapids, Michigan mom sets house on fire with her 3 daughters inside, killing 12 year old girl, Shamiya Stewart.
Roconda Singleton, Grand Rapids, Michigan mom sets house on fire with her 3 daughters inside, killing 12 year old girl, Shamiya Stewart.
Roconda Singleton, Grand Rapids, Michigan mom sets house on fire with her 3 daughters inside, killing 12 year old girl, Shamiya Stewart.

Roconda Singleton, Grand Rapids, Michigan mom sets house on fire with her 3 young daughters inside, killing 12 year old girl, Shamiya Stewart. Mother had been admitted to mental health facility last summer. 

A Michigan mother is facing a litany of charges, including arson, child abuse and now murder after confessing to setting her Grand Rapids home on fire as her three young daughters slept inside over the weekend.

Roconda Singleton, 46, is alleged to have confessed to removing seven fire alarms from the home before torching it as her three children, slept inside, killing her 12-year-old daughter, cops said.

‘I did it,’ Roconda Singleton, 46, allegedly told cops after setting her Grand Rapids house on fire early Saturday, officials told Fox 17. ‘I am not going to sit here and play like I am the victim.’

No known motive

The mom is accused of timing the fire as her three daughters  — ages 7, 10 and 12 — were fast asleep, early Saturday morning, along with removing the fire alarms so as not to notify the sleeping siblings that the home was ablaze. The fire alarms were recovered stuffed in a pillowcase in the backyard, officials said. 

The childrens’ mom allegedly poured lighter fluid around the home before setting it on fire — while standing outside watching as her kids screamed from inside the blazing property. 

Singleton’s 10 year old daughter managed to help the youngest sibling out, with the two girls surviving while their 12-year-old sibling, Shamiya Stewart, falling victim to the blaze, unable to get out in time.

The girl died Monday, after two days in intensive care.

‘This is a shockingly cruel, unimaginable crime committed by a mom against her three kids,’ Grand Rapids Police Department Chief Eric Winstrom told reporters at a press conference Monday, saying he ‘cannot fathom any motive.’

Roconda Singleton, Grand Rapids, Michigan mom sets house on fire with her 3 daughters inside, killing 12 year old girl, Shamiya Stewart.
Roconda Singleton, Grand Rapids, Michigan mom sets house on fire with her 3 daughters inside, killing 12 year old girl. Pictured the blaze and the parent who was arraigned on Tuesday.

Grand Rapids mom was admitted to mental health facility last summer

Singleton’s other two daughters suffered minor injuries — as the woman’s 10-year-old daughter now demands justice against her own mother.

‘I want to say that she should be locked up for life for killing my sister,’ the 10-year-old girl told WOOD TV, after Singleton refused to help her save her older sister.

‘I want to know, why did she have to do that to her? She didn’t deserve that.’

Singleton appeared in court on Tuesday on court, where she was charged with first degree arson and second degree child abuse, with the mother now facing an additional charge of murder, prosecutors announced on Wednesday, following the death of her 12 year old daughter. 

Documents showed that Singleton had previously undergone mental health treatment, including being admitted to Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services in August.

GoFundMe account has been started to help Shamiya’s family cover burial and legal costs and to care for her sisters.

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