Update, Nov. 22, 2023 at 7:22 PM:
An arrest has been made in the fatal stabbing of a Florida woman whose apartment was set on fire with her three young children inside.
Daytona Beach police arrested 34-year-old Charles Ivy, the father of 2 of Den’Jah Moore’s three children.
Ivy is accused of stabbing Moore multiple times and intentionally setting a fire to conceal his crimes.
The fire was set after 11 p.m. Monday at the Countryside Apartments on Beville Road. Police and firefighters responded to a 911 call around 11:35 p.m. Monday.
Fire crews rushed inside the burning apartment and found two children, ages 4 and 5, suffering from smoke inhalation. They were transported to a nearby hospital.
First responders found Moore’s body inside the apartment and Moore’s 10 month old son was found in full cardiac arrest in a crib. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Officials confirmed that Ivy is the father of the two older children who remain in critical condition at a Gainesville hospital.
“Their injuries were as a result of being left to die in a fully engulfed fire,”Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari Young said Wednesday.
Detectives found Ivy loading luggage and bags into his SUV outside his home in nearby Ormond Beach when they went to notify him about his children.
Ivy and another person drove away in the SUV, and cops pulled them over. Investigators noticed an injury to his leg and a cut on his hand. Ivy admitted to being at the apartment complex at the time of the fire but he denied killing Moore.
He could not think of anyone who would want to hurt Moore or her children, according to the affidavit.
Ivy is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted felony murder and one count of first-degree arson.
He is being held without bond at the Volusia County Jail.
“The defendant in this incident deserves a special place in the gates of hell for what he did to this mother and her children,” said Young.
He credited the first responders for getting the two children out of the apartment quickly.
“If not for their actions, it’s possible that the 4- and 5-year-olds would have passed away,” he said. “Their swift actions saved their lives.”
