KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Missouri family must now plan funerals for three small children killed in a Jameson house fire.
The Daviess County Sheriff said what’s left of the house is so charred, we might never know what started the fire that killed six-year-old Jazmin Curtis, two-year-old Kohnnar Uthe, and nine-month-old Kouper Rhoades.
Police said the children’s uncle, 20-year-old Jordan Curtis, was babysitting five children Saturday night when a fire started in the living room. Curtis was injured in the fire and is out of the hospital.
He was able to save two older children, Travis Curtis, 10, and Drake Curtis, 8. Drake is still listed in critical condition at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo.
Fox 4 talked with a member of the Uthe family Tuesday, who told us the pain of this tragedy is almost too much to bear, which is why they chose close family friend, Carl Carder, to speak on their behalf.
Carder has known the Uthe family most of his life and is close friends with Glen Uthe, the children’s grandfather. He said the family went to the funeral home Tuesday afternoon to make arrangements to bury the three young children.
It’s a tremendous loss he said is being felt by everyone in their tight-knit community.
“Tragedies like this, they just tug at your heart and you struggle with them,” Carder said. “I’m sitting here, I’m a grandfather. I just cannot imagine what Glen’s going through, so from the grandfather perspective, you just sit there and you go, ‘Oh my. How are we going to face this?’”
Carder said the funeral for the three children will be later this week or early next week.
If you want to help the family, you can drop off clothing and food donations at the Pit Stop, 28309 U.S. 69 in Winston, Mo. Or you can donate money to BTC Bank, attention Curtis-Uthe Memorial Fund, P.O. Box 35, Gallatin, MO 64640. Two GoFundMe accounts have also been set up to help, click on this link or this link for more information.