OKLAHOMA CITY — A Del City woman charged with child neglect in connection with the deaths of her three children in a motor home fire waived her preliminary hearing Friday and pleaded not guilty.

Stephanie Dunham later cried in court as a witness described the condition of the children's charred bodies.

Dunham, who attorneys said suffers from bipolar disorder, waived the hearing that would determine if there is enough evidence to put her on trial. A hearing was still held for her husband, Christopher Dunham, who's also charged in the case.

Del City fire marshal Jeff Keester testified that items associated with the making of the illegal drug methamphetamine were found in the burned recreational vehicle with the bodies of 4-year-old Christopher Dunham Jr., 3-year-old Crystal Dunham and 22-month-old Kailey Dunham.

"The items that I saw are consistent with meth labs," Keester said.

He later acknowledged during testimony that he had no evidence the items were used to make meth or that an illegal meth lab was a factor in the cause of the deadly fire.

Stephanie Dunham, who sat in the front row in the courtroom after waiving her preliminary hearing, dropped her head into her hands and cried as Keester described photos of her children's burned bodies. She later left Special Judge Larry Jones' courtroom and did not return.

The Dunhams were charged with felony child neglect as well as possession of methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia after Stephanie Dunham, 26, tested positive for meth at the time of the fire.

A fire inspector reported that Christopher Dunham, 25, a tow truck driver who was at work when the fire broke out, said the couple used meth.

Assistant District Attorney Pam Stillings has alleged the Dunhams routinely locked their children in the motor home where the family lived in the backyard of a family member.

Christopher Dunham's defense attorney, Robert Sisson, has said he believes the fire that killed the children was a tragic accident, not a criminal act.

Keester testified he encountered Stephanie Dunham, covered in soot, while at the scene of the fire on Jan. 4.

"She was saying: 'My babies, my babies,'" he said. She suffered burns to her head and arms that Keester described as exposure to intense heat outside the vehicle rather than the flames inside.

Keester said the recreational vehicle was fully engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived. He said the area around the non-functioning vehicle was cluttered with children's toys and other items and that extension cords ran from the vehicle to the family member's home nearby.

Keester said investigators found the bodies of three children and the family dog inside the vehicle after the flames were extinguished. The body of one child was lying across the driver's seat and two others were found in the rear of the vehicle.

The fire marshal testified that in addition to space heaters, investigators found a propane tank and torch in the vehicle along with smoking pipes, a weight scale, punctured aerosol cans, batteries and various other items that he said could be used to manufacture meth.

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Keester said there is no physical evidence that Stephanie Dunham purposely locked her children inside the vehicle or that either parent consumed meth with the smoking pipes.

Sisson questioned Keester at length about the flammability of recreational vehicles, asking whether they "are matchboxes, are tinderboxes" that "go up quick."

Keester said the cause of the fire remains unknown, but that it could have been started by a space heater, the propane tank and torch or an electrical device.

Testimony in the preliminary hearing resumes Monday.

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