GREENSBORO, N.C. — In December of 2022, Brandi Sturdivant's family changed forever. On Dec. 12, a house fire on Grimsley Street caught fire, and three children under the age of five died. Those three children were Sturdivant's. She has six children in total.
With Sturdivant in jail and charged with those three murders, the grandmother of the three other surviving children, Essie Moffitt, is caring for them.
Moffitt told WFMY News 2's Nixon Norman the children are coping well, but the healing journey will be lifelong.
"We're growing together, and we're getting stronger. We're just taking it one day at a time," Moffitt said.
Greensboro police initially charged Sturdivant with child abuse. They said she left the kids home alone. Now, investigators have upgraded the charges to murder. Moffitt said she has no idea what might come next.
She said her three grandkids are doing well right now but that losing multiple siblings and their mother all in one night has been traumatizing.
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"Children need their moms, just like they need their fathers, but they need their mothers. This [with her hand on her chest] is the first heartbeat they hear, the first voice that they hear, you know, and they [her three grandchildren] long for it… I'm quite sure," Moffitt said.
An autopsy report showed cocaine in the system of one of the children. Police said Sturdivant confessed to keeping drugs in the house. Witnesses told investigators Sturdivant would constantly go out and leave all of her children alone at night.
As for moving forward, Moffitt focuses on giving these children the childhood they deserve.
"I can't erase their past. I can embrace their presence and hug 'em into the future," she shared.
Moffitt said one of the family's next goals is to buy a new home for herself and her three grandkids.
As for Sturdivant, she is set to appear in court on March 12.