GUILTY SC - Chandler Shaver, 2, died under fallen dresser, Landrum, 13 March 2013

In March 2013, Greenville County deputies were called to a Landrum home where Margie Shaver's son and daughter had been locked in a room where they were playing together, investigators said...

"There were animal feces throughout the room," Whaley said. "And roach excrement. There was obviously mice infestation because while we were in the room, a mouse just about ran across my foot."

Whaley said Margie Shaver was in another room watching TV and playing games on her phone when a five-drawer dresser fell onto the children.

"She heard a loud bang in the room," Whaley said. "She did not get up to investigate. Come to find out, the bang was actually the dresser toppling over and crushing the children."

Whaley said it was almost 11:30 p.m. when Shaver finally checked on the children....


The autopsy found that Chandler died from compressional asphyxia.

Each time the child exhaled, the pressure of the dresser would increase, eventually restricting his breathing, so it took a while for him to die, according to the autopsy.

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The mother of a toddler, who was killed when a dresser fell on him and his sister, is now charged with homicide by child neglect, and both parents are charged with unlawful neglect of a child.

Margie Elizabeth Shaver, 27, and her husband, Christopher Jerome Shaver, 30, turned themselves in Thursday morning, according to the Greenville County Sheriff's Office...

Chandler was taken to Greenville Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead. The 4-year-old was treated for her injuries and was placed into the care of the South Carolina Department of Social Services

A release from the Sheriff's Office said the investigation into Chandler's death of the child found that Margie Shaver locked her children in a filthy, unsafe bedroom and did not supervise them....


In addition to the homicide charge, deputies say Shaver and her husband were charged with unlawful neglect of a child due to the condition of the home.

Christopher Shaver was not home when his son died.

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Greenville County sheriff's Deputy Jonathan Smith told News 4 that Margaret Rose, director of Lee Road Child Enrichment Center at Lee Road Methodist Church, was arrested on failure to report neglect charges last Thursday.

Smith said Rose knew that the children of Margie and Christopher Shaver were being neglected and did nothing about it.

Lt. Michael Hildebrand Hildebrand said, "There were some reports that the children had insect bites and also there were some reports of roaches found in the children's belongings and so those were the neglect type of reports that were being made that were never forwarded to law enforcement."

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Circuit Judge Letitia Verdin sentenced Christopher Jerome Shaver to 18 months in prison after the 31-year-old pleaded guilty to unlawful neglect of a child.

The plea and punishment aren’t related to the death of Shaver’s 2-year-old son, Chandler – only the roach- and rodent-infested living conditions the father allowed the boy and his 4-year-old sister to live in up until the March 2013 death, Verdin said.

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