A mother, her son and his girlfriend are believed to have been killed inside a house that was then set on fire.
Kelly Masciarelli, 54, Kolin Foster, 23, and Cameryn Richard, 21, were found dead in Masciarelli’s Harris County, Texas, home Sunday morning following an unexplained house fire.
Investigators who arrived at the Cypress Mill Park community continued to express the belief that all three had died before the fire started, while ordering autopsies.
The official cause of death for the trio will have to wait until then, as detectives added that they hope surveillance video seized in the suburban area will shed more light on the incident.
The condition of the bodies when they were found is unknown, but according to Sergeant Michael Ritchie, it was already clear that their deaths were not an accident.
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Kelly Masciarelli, 54, died sometime before the fire at her home in Texas on Sunday morning, police said.
Her son, Kolin Foster, 23, and his girlfriend, Cameryn Richard, 21, were also found dead at the residence, after which police said their deaths were likely not an accident or the result of smoke inhalation.
“We’re willing to say that these individuals appeared to be deceased prior to the fire being set,” a Harris County Sheriff’s sergeant said Sunday outside the Cypress home.
“Therefore, this is definitely a homicide, not an accidental death due to fire and smoke inhalation,” he concluded.
He added that an older red Corvette that was seen being towed from the scene is now “an area of interest” for detectives after it was found in the driveway of the $350,000 four-bedroom home.
The vehicle showed no signs of burns, but was nevertheless seized.
Detectives would only say that Foster, who had celebrated her 23rd birthday weeks earlier, had just bought the car and that the previous owner had nothing to do with the incident.
Most notably, officers stated that they believed Foster was not the last person to drive the car, and a neighbor told them that… Click on Houston They heard a car door slam before the police arrived.
Others interviewed said they heard nothing before the house was engulfed in flames, a blaze that was quickly extinguished by first responders upon their arrival around 7 a.m.
They quickly realized the fire was the result of arson, said Maj. Saul Suarez of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, who also spoke about the case at the scene.
The fire broke out at Masciarelli’s home in Harris County, Texas, sometime before 7 a.m. Sunday morning and remains unexplained. The cause is believed to be foul play.
Cameryn Richard, 21, was in the house with the mother and son before the fire broke out and also died.
Masciarelli, the home’s owner, also died, and police said all three bodies showed “signs of foul play and… trauma.”
“Upon arrival, our homicide team also determined that the bodies had signs of being victims of a crime and also had trauma,” he said, as officers from Harris County Precinct 4 worked around him.
Members of the Harris County Fire Marshal’s Office were also present and were able to contain the fire before it could spread outside.
None of the three agencies had any significant updates on the status of their investigation Monday morning, though Deputy Chief Mitchell Weston of the fire marshal’s office said most of the interior of the home was damaged by the fire.
He was unable to determine what caused the catastrophe, which has left residents in the community just 30 miles from Houston baffled.
“This has been a little unusual,” a neighbor told Click2Houston, while the detective said one of the bodies was found on the first floor of the home, while the other was found upstairs.
The outlet went on to report how he saw an investigator placing evidence markers near a fence in a park behind the home, a path Sergeant Ritchie said a suspect took while fleeing the residence.
The officer further revealed that an accelerant was used to start the fire, adding that killers often set fires to destroy evidence.
Sgt Ritchie said on Sunday that detectives believe a suspect fled through the back of the house after setting the fire and there was little doubt that all three had been murdered.
This is a developing story; please check back for updates.