New details have emerged in the case of two parents charged with murder following an August 2026 RV fire that claimed the lives of their two young children in the Cleveland area.
According to the criminal complaint filed with the Liberty County District Clerk’s Office, Meaghan Michell Herrod, 30, of Shepherd, and Matthew Allen Chambers, 39, of Cleveland, allegedly left the children locked inside a recreational vehicle despite knowing it had electrical deficiencies involving a refrigerator.
The complaint alleges that the parents “did commit or attempt to commit an act clearly dangerous to human life, namely locking an unattended child in a recreational vehicle with known electrical deficiencies, namely a refrigerator, without adult supervision that caused the deaths.”
Both parents have been charged with two counts of murder. Bond was set at $500,000 for each charge, bringing the total to $1 million for each defendant.
The charges stem from a fire on Tuesday morning, Aug. 11, at a property on County Road 3819 in the Cleveland area. Two children, both younger than 5, were inside the RV when the fire broke out.
At the time of the incident, Cleveland Fire Chief Sean Anderson said family members were on the property when the fire started but were unable to reach the children.
The RV was completely destroyed in the blaze. The children’s bodies were subsequently transported to the Jefferson County Medical Examiner’s Office for autopsies.
While the complaint identifies known electrical deficiencies involving a refrigerator, the information released so far does not establish whether the refrigerator was determined to be the source of the fire.