ELKTON, Md. — A makeshift memorial of stuffed animals serves as a brutal reminder of the fire inside a townhouse on Willow Drive in Elkton on Christmas morning that claimed the life of 10-year-old Kyleigh Treadway.
“It was Christmas morning. It was about… I want to say 7:00 am, and I remember all the firetrucks and ambulances and stuff,” said Mackenzie Peters, whose mother lives nearby.
Investigators would determine either overloaded extension cords or discarded smoking materials probably ignited the fire, and they found no evidence of smoke alarms inside the rental, but there’s more.
According to charging documents, five days before the fire, Animal Services officers had seized 18 dogs and cats from the home, and 10 of them showed signs of abuse or neglect.
Matted feces covered the floors, and the young girl’s teachers and counselors at Cecil Manor Elementary School told investigators that they would often wash her clothing and her hair because she smelled so bad from living in the filth that other children didn’t want to go near her.
The totality of the unsafe conditions inside the home led police to charge both Kyleigh’s mother and her boyfriend with involuntary manslaughter, neglect, and reckless endangerment, in addition to 10 counts of animal abuse.
“I don’t know why Social Services wasn’t called on behalf of the child. Because that is not right, and so I think several people should be held accountable. Not just the mother,” said Peters, “Now she has live day by day facing those charges, but I don’t think she should be the only one.”
