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| Shayla Swain, 24, and her one-year-old daughter Serenity Cox died in the fire |
WEST POINT, Miss. (WCBI) –
An extension cord is to blame for the fatal fire at a West Point apartment complex.
As you may remember, Thursday, West Point Fire Chief Ken Wilbourne told WCBI investigators were leaning toward a possible electrical issue involving the extension cord.
We also reported that the blaze started early Wednesday morning in a downstairs bedroom.
Shayla Swain, 24, and her one-year-old daughter Serenity Cox died in the fire.
Another child and the children’s father were able to escape without injury.
Wilbourne says this concludes their official investigation.
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By:
STEVE ROGERS
Staff Writer
news@dailytimesleader.com
Sunday, August 5, 2018
WEST POINT, MS
A man who lost his wife and young daughter in a fire this week was working to turn his life around following his arrest in 2017 on a string of burglary charges in Lowndes County.
"There's no doubt in my mind he was a different person. He'd has been working so hard. And his wife and daughters meant the world to him, the family meant everything to him. He's been dedicated to the children," said Donna Smith, the Columbus attorney and Lowndes County public defender who'd been appointed to represent 23-year-old Stefon Rashad Cox on the burglary charges.
When an apparent accidental electrical fire broke out late Tuesday night in the apartment he shared with his wife, 24-year-old Shayla Swain and their two children, Cox managed to escape through a rear door as the unit filled with smoke.
He found Swain outside in the front of the apartment with daughter Trinity, who just turned 2 on July 13.
Shayla dashed back into the apartment and up the stairs to get 16-month-old Serenity, who'd only recently been brought home from LeBonheur Children's Hospital after undergoing trachea surgery.
Shayla got to the baby's crib but couldn't get out before being overcome by smoke. She and the baby perished. Shayla was five months pregnant with their third child. Her mother died a year earlier from cancer. Stefon also has a child by another woman.
"I knew he'd been baptized recently. He told me about it, how he was changing," Smith said of her client, referring to his baptism earlier this year by Rev. Richard Shamblin at Pilgrim Grove Missionary Baptist Church. "I've seen an improvement in his attitude, he's been more responsible."
"Oh yeah, he's made a change. They've been coming to church, I baptized him," added Shamblin, whose church is preparing to assist the family. Cox and four others were arrested in May 2017 in connection with five burglaries in Lowndes County between April 17 and May 9.
Serenity had just been born March 28.
He was 21 at the time and had no prior record other than a misdemeanor traffic ticket. He now has a court date pending Aug. 29 in Lowndes County Circuit Court. Smith says she plans to asking for a continuance, given the circumstances, unless her client directs her otherwise.
"He just seems to be a good person who might have made some bad choices in the past. He's been very trust worthy with me, very attentive, very prompt in keeping me informed of every detail," Smith concluded.
Funeral arrangements for the mother and daughter have not yet been completed. Carter's Mortuary in West Point will be in charge.
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By:
DTL Staff
Wednesday, August 1, 2018
WEST POINT, MS
Overloaded
extension cords may have sparked a late-night apartment fire that
claimed the life of a pregnant 24-year-old mother who was trying to save
her 1-year-old daughter.
Clay
County Coroner Alvin Carter identified the victims as Shayla C. Swain
and her daughter, Serenity Cox. The infant had only recently been
released from LeBonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis after trachea
surgery and was on a breathing machine.
According
to witnesses and firefighters, the little girl was in her crib and the
mother was found next to it on the second floor of Unit 32 at 23 Layne
Drive in West Point.
It was the west end unit in a four-unit building.
Carter could not confirm whether Shayla was pregnant, but others at the complex said she was five months along.
The
child's father, Stefon Cox, and the couple's other child, 2-year-old
Trinity, escaped the blaze, which was reported to West Point
firefighters just moments after midnight Tuesday night, according to
Fire Chief Ken Wilbourne.
Investigators
from the state Fire Marshal's office spent several hours going through
the remains of the apartment Wednesday morning. At one point, they took a
distraught Cox through the unit to ask questions and identify some of
the items charred by the blaze that burned through the roof.
The
roof then collapsed partially into the three other units in the
building. The heat from the fire melted the grill on Swain's Ford
Firestar minivan parked in front of their unit and the front of a Buick
Rainier parked next to it that belonged to their neighbors.
A
bystander pointed out how a "Fight Breast Cancer" sticker on the back
of Swain's car was an ironic reminder that "we shouldn't take anything
for granted."
According to Wilbourne, the fire apparently started in a rear room on the first floor.
"Right
now we are leaning toward accidental, but we don't know that for sure
yet. We still are looking at some things," Wilbourne said, noting Cox
was able to identify some charred items and where they were plugged in.
Swain
and Cox had been asleep in that room at some point and the children
upstairs, Wilbourne said of the scenario investigators still are piecing
together.
Cox
told firefighters he woke up to heavy smoke and broke out the sliding
glass back door that led to a deck. He ran around to the front of the
apartment and found his wife there holding the 2-year-old.
He took that child and Swain ran back into the burning unit to try to save the other child.
West
Point police officers were the first on the scene and arrived to find
the apartment fully involved upstairs and downstairs, Wilbourne said.
Firefighters arrived moments later to the same scene.
"There
was nothing anyone could have done," the chief described, shaking his
head as investigators sorted through the debris and nearby residents
looked on.
Firefighters described the apartment as being "filled with belongings."
That and the 1970s-era wood paneling on the walls gave the flames "plenty of fuel" once they got started.
Cox was treated at North Mississippi Medical Center for cuts and scrapes and the child for smoke inhalation.
"They
were a sweet young family," said Rev. Richard Shamblin, of Pilgrim
Grove Missionary Baptist Church where he had recently christened Trinity
and baptized Stefon.
Shamblin
spent much of the morning at the hospital and at the complex trying to
help other families and connect them to the American Red Cross, which
was providing needed items for the families.
The units are owned by Mike Henson and his son, Richard, at Henson Construction.
"Our
thoughts and prayers go out to these families, it is such a tragedy,"
Mike Henson said as he and his son stood in the parking lot seeing what
they could do to assist fire investigators and the other families in the
building. Crews were securing the building Wednesday afternoon to
prevent looters.
The Hensons also were trying to get other tenants into different units if they wanted.
The three other units in the building received smoke and water damage and some fire damage when the burning roof collapsed.
Carla
Foster and James Watts lived in the two apartments at the other end of
the building and neither were at home. Foster was at a friend's and
Watts was at work and learned of the fire when he was called to make
sure he wasn't inside his unit.
Tarrance Petty and his girlfriend, Jessica Rias, and their 9-month-old baby boy lived in the apartment adjacent to Unit 32.
"She
woke up to go to the bathroom and smelled the smoke and heard someone
screaming. She woke me up and I smelled bad smoke. She told me to get
the baby, that the apartment was on fire," said Petty.
"I
grabbed the baby and we ran downstairs and out. I went back in ours to
see if there was anything I could save real quick. Smoke was all through
the house," he described.
"I
saw him, he was outside, bleeding, he was bloody, he had one baby,
there were flames everywhere downstairs in their apartment. The mother
had gone back in," Petty said of Cox.
An explosion convinced him not to go back into his own unit.
"It was a loud boom, a big boom, really big," he described.
Firefighters
say it likely was one of the oxygen canisters used for Serenity's
treatment. One was found exploded near the front door of the unit.
"They were good people, they always waved," Petty said of his neighbors.This is a developing story. The Daily Times Leader will have updates as they come available.