Georgia father, 36, charged with murder of daughters aged one and three after ‘locking them in car and setting it on fire’

A Georgia father has been arrested for murdering his young daughters after setting them on fire inside a car following an argument with his wife.

Adan Tzoyohua Panzo, 36, was charged with felony murder, malice murder and arson, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

On Saturday, deputies from the Webster County Sheriff’s Office and Fire Department and emergency personnel responded to a report of a car fire at a home on Millard Kennedy Road in Preston.

Once the fire was extinguished, the firefighters discovered Panzo’s young children, a one-year-old girl and a three-year-old girl, dead inside the vehicle.

The father-of-two was arrested following allegations he set fire to the vehicle following a domestic dispute with his wife. The children’s mother has not yet been identified.

Panzo is being held at the Webster County Jail.

News of the horrific incident spread like wildfire in the close-knit community.

A community resident told locals WALB News: ‘I don’t know how quickly the fire broke out or if they suffered or didn’t suffer… I don’t know, it’s very sad to hear that.’

The person added: “If it was my mother, that would break her.”

The horrific case is an active investigation involving agents from the GBI, the State Fire Marshal’s Office and the Webster County Sheriff’s Office.

The community of Preston is a small rural county located in southwestern Georgia and was formed on December 16, 1853 from a portion of adjoining Stewart County in Georgia, according to the Webster County homepage.

According to a 2000 census, the city’s population was 453, which included 190 homes and 129 families.