A Florida mother in her 20s is facing multiple felony charges after social media videos showed her inflicting physical harm on her two daughters.
Meliza Campos-Sanchez posted videos on Instagram, where she has over 57,000 followers, where she can be seen pouring hot candle wax on the children and setting fire to clothing inside their home while the children are present.
The 26-year-old mother was arrested on Monday by Miami authorities and was charged with multiple felony charges, including one count of first-degree arson and three counts of child abuse, according to court records.
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According to a probable cause affidavit, “One video shows the defendant in the kitchen of her home, using lit candles to pour hot melted candle wax on her own leg, and then in the hands of her two daughters.”
The children appear visibly terrified as she continues with the dangerous act. The children sob and plead with her not to pour wax on them. In another video, she can be seen wearing a silver mask, a short burgundy dress, and black underwear while “dancing seductively” and singing in Spanish in her kitchen with a red wand lighter in hand.
Investigators reported that she then dropped two black articles of clothing onto the kitchen floor, soaked them with liquid from a clear plastic bottle, and ignited them using the lighter. The video captures a “large flashover of orange flame.”
She then took a glass mug and threw it in the flames. The mug broke. She ignored the burning flames and continued to dance. Campos-Sanchez “lifted her dress to her chest” before removing the mask.
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The suspect’s six-year-old daughter told detectives she and her sister were in the laundry room next to the kitchen. They saw their mother set fire to the ground.
“Afterwards, (the six-year-old) stated that her mother brought her and her sister into the kitchen, and began pouring what she describes as ‘HOT WATER OR AGUA’ from the lit candles (melted candle wax) on herself, (the 6-year-old), and her sister,” the affidavit states.
After the flames were put out, she threw wax on her children.
The investigation began after Miami-Dade Fire Rescue and local sheriff’s deputies responded to a reported residence fire at Campos-Sanchez’s residence.
First responders arrived at the scene and discovered charring and physical damage in the center of the tiled kitchen floor. Investigators also recovered evidence from the scene, including a silver mask, a red wand lighter, and a clear plastic condiment bottle suspected of containing rubbing alcohol, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Her husband had been away from home. He told detectives that he had been staying with the suspect’s in-laws for a week before the incident occurred. He added that the two had been facing rough patches in their marriage and that his wife tried to take her own life at some point in the past.
Campos-Sanchez was first taken to a hospital and placed under a temporary mental health hold under the Baker Act. After her release from the medical facility, Campos-Sanchez was taken into custody by deputies and booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Institution.
She is scheduled to appear before a judge on Tuesday for a bond hearing.
Disclaimer: The Inquisitr could not independently confirm the facts of this incident and is reporting based on the information available within the public video record.
