Though the flames were extinguished weeks ago, state records shed light on new, tragic revelations about a Gwinnett County family after a house fire claimed the life of a 10-year-old girl and revealed the squalid living conditions of her siblings who were isolated there.
Zoe McCue was killed in the blaze at her Loganville home on Easter Sunday, during the early morning hours of April 17, authorities said.
In the course of investigating the fire, authorities found evidence of alleged abuse and neglect, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported. The case was turned over to the Gwinnett police department’s special victims unit, and details about the family’s history were unearthed in a recent custody hearing and state records obtained by the AJC through an open records request.
Heavily redacted records from Georgia’s Division of Family and Children Services show two previous incidents in which the parents were investigated for allegations of child abuse, including one that led to the father’s arrest. The AJC is not publishing the names of the parents because they are not facing criminal charges.
The 10-year-old fire victim shared the home on Beaver Road with her parents and four siblings, but her father and one sibling were not home at the time. Her mother and two of her siblings escaped, prompting an “aggressive” search for Zoe and a 15-year-old brother still believed to be trapped inside, according to Gwinnett fire officials.
McCue’s body was eventually located in a windowless room used as a bedroom, fire officials said. Hours later, her 15-year-old brother was found at a church in Rockdale County, where authorities said he confessed to intentionally setting fire to the house.
He was taken into custody and faces charges of murder, among others, and remains in a youth detention facility.
The parents were first investigated in September 2015, when DFCS was called to a Gwinnett school after getting reports that one of the children had a large mark on his face and claimed his father had pushed him down in the yard.
That investigation included an interview with the child at school, his school counselor and both of his parents, according to DFCS records. The case manager noted that the boy was clean and well-groomed, and he said his house had working utilities, running water and that he got enough food to eat. He told the case manager that he fell because his father pushed him down, and photos were taken of the mark on his face, the report said.
A school counselor told the case manager that the boy had good attendance and there were no concerns about abuse in the home, according to the report. The investigation also included a walk-through of the family’s home that later burned down. At the time, the case manager said it was clean and sanitary with working utilities.
The father was interviewed the day of the walk-through, the DFCS report said. He mentioned to the case manager that the two youngest siblings, one of whom was Zoe, were losing weight and had gone to the hospital with eating issues. He described the children’s weight loss as a major source of stress in the home.
The DFCS case manager recommended follow-up and another case manager later spoke with the boy at the center of the investigation. After speaking to the boy, his school counselor and multiple family contacts, the case manager closed the case.
In 2019, a second case was opened when law enforcement in Tennessee contacted the state’s child abuse hotline after the father and four of the children were seen getting out of a truck and walking into the woods, DFCS records said. Officers called the mother, who said she thought the children were at their paternal grandparents’ house. At the time, she told the officers that her husband had mental health issues but had not been diagnosed with anything, the report said.
Officers in Tennessee searched for the father and children for hours, according to DFCS records, and eventually found them walking down a street. The man had kicked in the door of an abandoned house in the woods, the DFCS report said, but no further details were included. He was arrested and charged with child abuse, and the mother drove from Gwinnett to pick up the children, the report said.
After the fatal fire, an emergency hearing was held April 18, and the three remaining siblings were moved into protective custody, according to court records.
“The children have not been in school in years, the home has no sewage system, the children have been using buckets to relieve themselves, and none of the children have had a shower in possibly months,” a DFCS case manager wrote in an affidavit filed in juvenile court that day. Investigators believe the children had not been outside of the house in years.
State records show that DFCS case managers interviewed Zoe’s paternal grandmother about the fire. She said she was in shock at the loss of her granddaughter but described her son and daughter-in-law as good parents.
The grandmother also said she had not seen the family in person since before the COVID-19 pandemic. She told the case manager she was sick and the pandemic kept her from having contact with many people.
According to the grandmother, the DFCS report said, the children were homeschooled by their father, who she described as a “very private person.”
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