Siblings of baby who burned to death ordered to CPS custody

The mother of the one-year-old girl who burned to death did not appear in court on Wednesday afternoon for an emergency custody hearing which still took place. The judge ruled the other three children will remain in foster care. Child Protective Services says the mother has an extensive record.

Attorney Ad Litem Mike Craig and CPS representatives took part in the hearing at juvenile court despite the absence of one-year-old J'Zrya Thompson's mother. CPS says the baby "fell out of the oven" after being burned to death late on Tuesday night.

"Today we asked for emergency custody of the three children that were surviving the incident of last night," said Amy Strictly with the Department of Family Protective Services. "The court found that were was an immediate danger to those three kids." 

CPS added the mom left four young children at home and that the 5-year-old child said she was sleeping when it happened. A 3-year-old boy admits to having some involvement, according to CPS.

"The children have made statements about what happened last night, but they've also sort of wavered on those statements, so we're not sure exactly what happened and we are still going to be working with the children," said Strictly. "Part of that's going to be counseling to see if we can help them with dealing with those memories on what happened last night."

Attorneys said they will return to court on Dec. 2 to request that the children remain in CPS custody. 

FOX 26 News returned to the crime scene where the grandmother of the children said their mother was inside the apartment unit, but no one would speak with FOX 26.

The Harris County District Attorney expects charges will be filed against the mother some time next week.