Father Tries to Cope With Deaths of His 4 Daughters

Instead of spending the long Fourth of July weekend visiting his daughters, David Folden spent Friday in a grief-stricken stupor, calling funeral homes.

The four young girls, camped in sleeping bags on their kitchen floor in Valencia, suffocated in a fatal cloud of natural gas from an oven allegedly turned on by their mother Tuesday night, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the coroner’s office said.

“You have no idea what I’m going through now, trying to deal with all this,” said a tearful Folden, 47, of Perris. “I’ve got funeral arrangements to take care of. I have to lay my kids to rest.”

Folden’s ex-wife, Sandi Nieves, 34, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of murder, accused by police of coaxing the girls into the kitchen for a slumber party and then asphyxiating them with gas.

On Friday, the coroner’s office conducted autopsies on the girls--ages 5, 7, 11 and 12--but will not release the official cause of their death until a battery of toxicology tests are completed, said Lt. Cheryl MacWillie of the coroner’s office.

Meanwhile, homicide detectives on Friday ruled out any involvement of Nieves’ 14-year-old son, who was also inside the home when the girls died and was treated for smoke inhalation, said Deputy Joan Raber, a Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman.

“He’s a victim,” Raber said.

The killings occurred just one day before Nieves and Folden were scheduled to appear in a Riverside County court to reconsider custody of the children. The couple separated in February 1997, and Nieves moved to Valencia from Perris shortly thereafter.

Folden declined to talk about the marriage or the bitter custody battle raging since the couple’s breakup, but their animosity was well-known by family members.

“It was a real bad divorce, real bad,” said Nieves’ father, Kenneth Kellner of Monticello, Ind. “In her will, she said that if anything happened to her, the police should check out David.”

Kellner said he’s still in shock over her arrest, since he always saw her as a considerate, almost doting mother.

Nieves allegedly attempted to cover up the slayings by using gasoline to set the house on fire, a smoldering blaze that caused little damage, but sent her and her son to the hospital suffering from smoke inhalation, investigators said.

On Thursday night, Nieves was transferred from a Newhall hospital to the county jail’s hospital ward at County USC Medical Center in Los Angeles. Nieves is not considered a suicide risk, Raber said. Authorities speculated that Nieves may have tried to kill herself after the fire broke out.

When released by doctors, Nieves will be sent to Twin Towers Correctional Facility. Her arraignment on murder charges is scheduled for Monday in Newhall.

Her son, David, was reported in good condition at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital on Friday afternoon, said hospital spokeswoman Janice Newbold.

In court pleadings in Riverside, Folden had asked for greater access to the children, charging that Nieves beat the girls with a long wooden spoon. However, the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services has not received any reports of child abuse by Nieves, officials said.

Nieves told the court that Folden’s oldest son, David M. Folden, 25, was a violent drug user who threatened her and the young girls. On two occasions, the son violated a restraining order forbidding him to come near the younger children, according to Riverside County Sheriff’s Department records.

Folden had applied for custody of the two younger girls, his biological daughters: Kristl D. Folden, 7, and Jaqlene M. Folden, 5, both of whom were killed.

While married to Nieves, Folden adopted her three oldest children: David, the 14-year-old, and his two sisters, who were also killed by the gas: Nikolet A. Folden, 12, and Rashel H. Folden, 11.

In the custody dispute, Folden was seeking to annul his adoption of those children, according to Nieves’ stepmother, Penny Lucia. However, no court records verifying this could be found in the Divorce Court file.

Times staff writers Jeff Leeds and T. Christian Miller contributed to this story.