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PRINCESS ANNE, Md. (AP) — Eight white hearses carried a Maryland family to their funeral Saturday at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, each hearse with a picture of a family member staring out from a window.
Hundreds turned out to say goodbye to Rodney Todd and his seven children who died of carbon monoxide poisoning in their Maryland home.
Many mourners who passed by the family's open caskets at the school's performing arts center said the children, who ranged in age from 6 to 15, and their father, who had worked at the university, looked angelic. The two young boys were dressed in white three-piece suits, and the five girls wore sparkly white dresses with tiaras on their heads.
Police say the 36-year-old Todd, who was divorced, and his children were poisoned in their sleep days after the power company discovered a stolen meter and cut off electricity to their rental home in Princess Anne. With the power out, Todd bought a generator and put it in his kitchen to keep his family warm. They were found dead April 6.
The children — boys Cameron and ZhiHeem, and girls Tyjuziana, Tykeria, Tynijuzia, TyNiah and Tybreyia — were buried Saturday at Spring Grove Cemetery in Denton, where their mother Tyisha Chambers lives.
Their father will be buried Sunday at the Harrisville Malone-Madison Cemetery in Madison, near his hometown of Cambridge.
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