UPDATE: Investigation after 2 children die in NC collapse

MICHAEL BIESECKER
Associated Press

STANLEY, NC (AP) — It was common knowledge around a rural North Carolina neighborhood that Jordan Arwood was digging a two-story-deep pit on his property. Some said it was for a bunker and warned their children to stay out of it.

Now authorities are investigating after the rain-soaked walls of the pit collapsed Sunday, fatally burying two young cousins, including Arwood’s daughter.

Arwood was operating a backhoe Sunday night in the pit when the walls collapsed and he called 911.

The bodies of the two young cousins, 6-year-old Chloe Jade Arwood and 7-year-old James Levi Caldwell, were dug out Monday morning.

Later on Monday, sheriff’s deputies removed firearms and a marijuana plant from Arwood’s mobile home. Arwood is a felon who is not allowed to have guns.

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