The boyfriend of a foster care mother charged with murder for the deaths of toddler twins Raelynn and Payton Keyes has been arrested and charged.

A warrant was issued Dec. 16 for Sam Edwards according to the Hinesville Police Department. On Dec. 19, HPD officers spotted Edwards driving down the road and imitated a traffic stop to execute the arrest warrant. He was booked into the Liberty County Jail and charged with two counts of murder in the second degree and two counts of cruelty to children in the second degree, according to jail records. 

Edwards remained in jail Dec. 30 awaiting his first bond hearing. 

Authorities say on Sept. 29, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. the twins died after crawling into a disabled vehicle parked at Edwards’ home at 202 Augusta Way. 

Edwards is the boyfriend of Claudette Foster, the children’s appointed foster care mother.

It has been reported that the Department of Family and Children Services had told Foster not to leave the children with Edwards and to not spend the night at Edwards’ house. According to incident reports, however, it appears Foster did not follow those instructions.

Foster is charged with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of cruelty to children. Because Foster is a native of Jamaica, she was considered a flight risk and was denied bond twice in separate bond hearings. She was granted and made bod on Dec. 4.

According to the arrest warrants, Foster allegedly caused cruel and excessive mental and physical pain to the twins when she left the children unattended for approximately three hours while she took a nap. Documents said the children entered the disabled vehicle which led to their death by heat stroke.

According to Hinesville police detective Bryan Wolfe, Foster is charged because it was her alleged neglect that led to the circumstances of their death. 

Lewis Levine contributed to this story