Child Protective Services takes sibling of victims into custody
The mother of two children who died in an apartment fire Sunday in Gary was charged Tuesday in connection with their deaths, court records show.
Kristen Gober, 33, was charged Tuesday with two counts of neglect of a dependent resulting in death, neglect of a dependent and possession of marijuana, according to Lake Superior Court records.
Siblings Khristopher Gober, 4, and Kailani Gober, 2, died at Methodist Hospitals Northlake after Gary firefighters rescued them from the 54-unit Lakeshore Dunes complex on Forest Court.
The children suffered from smoke inhalation and burns, Gary Fire Department Chief of Operations Mark Jones said.
A 6-year-old brother of the Gober children made it out of the apartment, as well as an unidentified 8-year-old boy who jumped safely from the fourth floor onto a blanket held by neighbors, officials said.
The 6-year-old boy said his mother had left Saturday night “before dinner and had not returned,” according to a probable cause affidavit.
The children “were playing with the stove” and put a blanket inside when the “blanket caught fire and was smoking real bad,” the affidavit states.
The three siblings “were afraid and were hiding under a blanket in their mother’s room” when the 6-year-old ran out of the apartment, according to court records.
Jones previously said the fire, which began on the fourth floor and displaced 113 residents, appeared accidental with no foul play suspected.
Kristen Gober said she “tried to get her kids out of the fire but there was too much smoke,” according to the affidavit. She “was telling her kids to come out and she could hear the kids but the flames kept her back,” the affidavit states.
Gober said she had talked with her 6-year-old before “about fires and what to do and where to go if a fire happened,” and she “hoped that her children had made it out or that they jumped,” court records state.
The mother said “she was in a state of shock” and “could not bear to watch the fire so she started walking away when someone picked her up” and took her to McDonald’s, according to court documents.
Kristen Gober was arrested at a McDonald’s on Lake Street in the city’s Miller section, “a short distance away” from the apartments.
“Ms. Gober said that everyone knew that the children were inside and said it was a lost cause to tell the firemen about the children at that point,” the affidavit states.
As the fire alarm went off, a maintenance employee said he saw Kristen Gober “running out the back door that had the exit ramp” and she said “the fire was in her apartment,” according to the affidavit. Gober was “panicked and was in self-preservation mode but never mentioned her children upstairs,” court records state.
The employee “was in the process of going upstairs to check for the origin of the fire” when he saw Gober’s 6-year-old walking and learned his brother and sister “were still upstairs,” according to the affidavit.
The maintenance man said Kristen Gober had been at his apartment the evening before and the two drank vodka together, according to court records. When the employee woke up around 10 a.m. Sunday morning, Gober was still at his apartment, he said in court documents.
The employee was in the bathroom when the fire alarm went off, and when he came out to attend to the alarm, Gober no longer was there, court records show.
Gober said she had “left the children alone” sleeping in her apartment Saturday night and Sunday morning while she did laundry and went to the maintenance employee’s apartment for a couple of hours, the affidavit states. Gober said “she had left her children unattended on multiple occasions for extended periods of time while doing laundry,” according to the affidavit.
Investigators questioned if Kristen Gober had gone to her apartment when the fire alarm went off because while police smelled smoke on the maintenance employee, they did not smell it on Kristen Gober’s clothes, court records show.
“I do not believe Ms. Gober to be truthful and credible because her statements were inconsistent with both the physical and testimonial evidence gathered by investigators,” a detective wrote in the affidavit.
After going through Gober’s purse, investigators also “discovered a half-smoked marijuana blunt,” according to court documents.
Child Protective Services, which had prior contacts with Kristen Gober, took the 6-year-old into custody, according to court records.
