Meliza Campos-Sánchez is 26 years old and has two young daughters, aged 6 and 3. On Sunday, August 16, Miami-Dade firefighters arrived at her home because of a kitchen fire. What they found afterward was worse than the flames.
A forensic expert determined that the fire had been started with an open flame and flammable liquid. But the most damning evidence had been uploaded by her herself to Instagram: a video in which she poured hot, melted wax from candles onto her own leg and onto the hands of her two daughters. In another clip, wearing a silver mask, she poured wax over her chest, sprayed clothes lying on the floor, and set them on fire with a lighter.
The older daughter, just 6 years old, told investigators that she and her sister were in the laundry room next to the kitchen when they saw their mother throw a glass cup onto the floor and dance near the fire. A judge ordered that Campos-Sánchez have no contact with the girls, and she was detained without bail, while her husband stated that the couple was going through a marital crisis.