A 26-year-old Miami-Dade mother is facing arson and child abuse charges after authorities say she poured hot wax on her two young daughters and then set fire to clothing in the family's kitchen, an incident that ended only after her 6-year-old doused the flames herself with a bowl of water. Meliza Campos-Sanchez was arrested on charges including arson, child abuse with no great bodily harm, and child neglect with no great bodily harm, according to arrest reports.
According to NBC 6 South Florida, Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office deputies responded to a call about an intentional fire in a home's kitchen on the 4200 block of Southwest 95th Avenue. Arrest reports say Campos-Sanchez used lit candles to pour melted wax on her own leg and onto the hands of her two daughters, ages 3 and 6, before the situation escalated further inside the kitchen.
Investigators say Campos-Sanchez then dropped two articles of clothing on the kitchen floor and sprayed them with liquid from a bottle that investigators believe contained rubbing alcohol, per the same arrest reports. She allegedly lit the clothing on fire while singing and dancing in the kitchen with a lighter in her hand. It was the older of the two girls, the 6-year-old, who extinguished the flames with a bowl of water, according to the reports. Deputies later found remnants of the fire-damaged clothing in a trash can outside the home.
Mental Health Hold Preceded Jail Booking
Campos-Sanchez was taken to a hospital for a mental health evaluation under the Baker Act before she was booked into jail following her release, arrest reports indicate. Florida's Baker Act, codified under state law, allows individuals taken into custody for involuntary mental health evaluation to be held at a designated receiving facility for up to 72 hours to complete a psychiatric examination. Law enforcement officers initiate roughly half of all such involuntary examinations statewide, per the Florida Senate.
The arrest reports also state that Campos-Sanchez had previously tied a rope in the rafters in an earlier suicide attempt, and that she posted two videos to her Instagram account around the time of the incident. Her husband told investigators the couple had been having marital issues and said he had been staying with his parents at the time of the fire. Anyone experiencing a mental health crisis can reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988, a service that has answered more than 10 million calls, texts, and chats nationwide since its 2022 launch, according to KFF.
Held Without Bond Amid Immigration Hold
A judge ordered Campos-Sanchez held without bond and appointed her a public defender. She also has an immigration hold, which under Florida Statute § 908.104 requires state and local law enforcement agencies to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, allowing agents to request a 48-hour hold on inmates beyond their scheduled state release, according to the Florida Senate. That statute, enacted in 2019, bars local Florida jurisdictions from restricting cooperation with ICE detainers, which helps explain why Campos-Sanchez remains detained despite the no-bond order.
Campos-Sanchez is being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, a 1,300-bed facility in Miami operated by the Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department that serves as the county's central intake and booking hub for pretrial detainees, according to Miami-Dade County. The deputies who responded to the scene are part of the newly restored Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office, which officially replaced the Miami-Dade Police Department in January 2025 after Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz was sworn in, restoring an elected sheriff to the county for the first time in nearly 60 years.
Statutory Exposure and Open Questions
Under Florida Statute § 806.01, first-degree arson covers willfully and unlawfully damaging any dwelling or occupied structure by fire or explosion, and it is automatically charged at the first-degree felony level for residential structures regardless of occupancy — a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in state prison and a $10,000 fine. The child abuse and neglect counts, filed as third-degree felonies under Florida Statute § 827.03, each carry a maximum of five years in prison and $5,000 in fines.
It remains unclear whether Florida's Department of Children and Families has formally removed the two girls from the home, and the current physical and psychological condition of the daughters has not been detailed in available reports. DCF conducts Child Protective Investigations whenever child endangerment or abuse is reported, evaluating home safety and determining whether children must be placed in emergency protective custody, a process that runs alongside — but separate from — the criminal case now before a judge.
