DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Daytona Beach police Chief Jakari Young held a news conference on Wednesday to identify and condemn the man who investigators believe fatally stabbed a mother and left her children to die in an apartment fire that ultimately killed her 10-month-old son.
Charles Leon Ivy, 34, of Ormond Beach, will face charges of first-degree arson, two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder in the deaths of 30-year-old Den’Jah Moore and her 10-month-old son, as well for injuries inflicted on a 4-year-old and a 5-year-old who remain intubated after being rescued from the burning home and hospitalized in critical condition.
Young, addressing the incident as a double murder, said it was a tragedy the likes of which he had never seen.
“This is the most horrendous and horrific crime that I’ve experienced throughout my entire career,” Young said. “...The defendant in this incident deserves a special place in the gates of hell for what he did to this mother and these children.”
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Firefighters were called late Monday to the Countryside Apartments on Beville Road and found Moore’s body, observing she had been stabbed multiple times, police said. Moore’s 10-month-old son died at a hospital, according to Young.
At the apartment, firefighters noted all four kitchen stove burners were reportedly turned on near assorted flammable materials such as paper. This was just one of two locations where a State Fire Marshal investigator determined the fire emanated, also pointing to a bedroom as where the main fire developed, according to Ivy’s arrest affidavit.
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At the news conference Wednesday, Young said the police department was certain that Ivy is the father of the two older children who were taken to Shands Hospital in Gainesville after being found in the burning apartment.
Tuesday, after Ormond Beach police fulfilled a request to notify Ivy that his children were in the hospital, Daytona Beach investigators found themselves unable to contact Ivy themselves either by phone or in person. That afternoon, Ivy was reportedly seen loading suitcases and bags into an SUV at his residence in Ormond Beach. Officers then conducted a traffic stop and Ivy agreed to come to the Daytona Beach Police Department to speak with detectives.
Though Ivy did not confess, Chief Young said the evidence speaks for itself.
“The defendant did not confess to what he did, but what he did was he placed himself on scene. He put himself on scene around the time that these murders would have occurred. Through technology, we were able to track his vehicle via traffic cameras leaving the area after this incident would have occurred and he was also in possession, admittedly, of the victim’s cell phone. So we’re still doing some legwork as far as the investigation goes, but the evidence is clear,” Young said.
Ivy is currently being held by Volusia County Corrections on no bond.
“I’m very proud of all the officers that initially responded, as well as fire and medical personnel,” Young said at a news conference on Tuesday. “If it wasn’t for their actions, there probably would have been more lives lost.”
Watch the news conference again in the video player below:
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