A 26-year-old Miami mother faces first-degree arson, child abuse and child neglect charges after investigators say she poured hot melted candle wax on her two young daughters and intentionally set a fire in the family kitchen while the girls were home.
Meliza Campos-Sanchez was arrested Monday, Aug. 17, 2026, and booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Institution. According to arrest affidavits obtained by NBC 6 South Florida, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue responded the day before to a report of a kitchen fire at a home in the 4200 block of Southwest 95th Avenue. A fire investigator determined the blaze had been started deliberately with an open flame, an ignitable liquid believed to be rubbing alcohol, and combustible clothing.
Deputies later recovered two videos showing her burning clothing and a child that Campos-Sanchez had posted to her Instagram account, which had roughly 55,000 followers and identified her as an “unfiltered realtor” who helped women build wealth and confidence. In one video she appears in the kitchen using lit candles to pour melted wax onto her own leg and then into the hands of her daughters, ages 6 and 3. She can be heard telling the children not to be scared. In the second video she wears a silver mask, a short burgundy dress and black underwear, sings in Spanish and dances while holding a red wand lighter. She drops clothing onto the tiled floor, sprays liquid from a clear plastic bottle with a yellow cap onto the fabric, lights it and throws a glass mug into the flames.
The older daughter told investigators she and her sister were in the laundry room next to the kitchen after lunch when they watched their mother start the fire and throw the mug while dancing — a pattern echoing the father-arrested child-neglect cases Hypefresh has tracked across Florida. The 6-year-old said her mother then used a bowl of water to put out the flames. She also said Campos-Sanchez later brought both girls into the kitchen and poured hot wax from the candles onto herself and the children. Investigators recovered the silver mask, the red lighter, the plastic bottle and fire-damaged clothing from a trash can outside the home. Minor scorch marks were visible on the center of the kitchen floor.
Campos-Sanchez’s husband, Yusniel Cue, told deputies the couple had been having marital problems and that he had been staying with his parents for about a week while she remained at the house with the girls. He said a friend of his wife’s contacted him about the videos and urged him to call police. When he arrived, firefighters and Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies were already there. Cue took custody of the daughters, as court records reviewed by Law & Crime show. He also told investigators that Campos-Sanchez had previously attempted suicide by tying a rope in the rafters and that he had contacted the sheriff’s office the prior week out of concern for the children, as first reported by People.
Campos-Sanchez was taken to a hospital under Florida’s Baker Act for a mental-health evaluation. An officer later found her sedated and unable to be interviewed. After she was cleared for discharge she was charged and booked. A judge appointed a public defender, ordered her held without bond and directed that she have no contact with the children — a protective order consistent with the child-neglect protective custody patterns seen in comparable cases Hypefresh has covered. Records also show an immigration hold.
The girls remain in their father’s care. Campos-Sanchez, who is Cuban-born and worked in real estate while building her online following, has not entered a formal plea in open court beyond the initial appearance, and her booking status can be confirmed through Miami-Dade’s official inmate search. The case remains under the jurisdiction of Miami-Dade County courts, which have handled a string of high-profile criminal cases this year.
