ST. CLAIR COUNTY — A St. Clair County jury has found Sabrina Dunigan, an East St. Louis woman, responsible on two of five counts of endangering the life or health of her children for the deaths of her five kids in a tragic fire that occurred four years ago.
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Dunigan’s sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 26, 2025.
The fire took place in the early morning hours of Aug. 6, 2021, at an apartment building on North 29th Street in East St. Louis, where Dunigan and her five children lived.
The children, ranging in age from 2 to 9, were home alone when the fire broke out. The children who died in the fire were identified in descending age order as Deontae Davis Jr., 9; 8-year-old twins Neveah Dunigan and Heaven Dunigan; Jabari Johnson, 4; and Loy’el Dunigan, 2.
The deaths also tragically occurred on the birthday of their mother, Sabrina.
The East St. Louis Fire Department said at the time that Dunigan had briefly left the apartment to pick up her boyfriend from work. She reported the fire around 3:45 a.m. that morning and attempted to rescue her children alongside her boyfriend.
Firefighters found three children in the kitchen area and two children in the living room beneath burned debris. Four of the children reportedly died at the scene. One of the children in the fire ultimately died at a local hospital.
