New Jersey house fire that killed two ruled a murder-suicide. Neighbors are stunned.
The home's gas line had been tampered with, authorities said. A woman was shot in the head and a man died in the fire.
The Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office announced Tuesday that its investigators are treating Sunday’s massive house fire in Washington Township as a murder-suicide, confirming rumors that had been spreading through the quiet New Jersey neighborhood since Mother’s Day morning.
The fire started a little after 2 a.m. Sunday and burned so intensely that neighbors heard an explosion.
The house, located in a cul-de-sac on Tranquillity Court, was already fully engulfed in flames by the time the Washington Township Fire Department arrived. The sides of two neighbors’ homes were partially melted by the heat.
Once the fire was extinguished, investigators entered the ranch-style home and found the body of a woman with a fatal gunshot wound to her head. The county medical examiner ruled her death a homicide.
They also found a man, believed to be the tenant of the home, with a handgun near his body. He had not been shot. His death has been ruled a suicide caused by the fire.
“Investigation conducted in the aftermath of the fire revealed the presence of an accelerant and that the home’s gas line had been tampered with, enabling unrestricted flow of natural gas into the home’s interior,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Authorities have not released the names of either person, but public records and people familiar with the situation identified the tenant as Daniel Steele, 59.
Nicole Ruiz, a former girlfriend of Steele’s, told NBC10 that prior to the fire, he dropped off his dog, Billy, at her house, along with dog food and money.
He sent Ruiz an email just before the fire broke out that read, in part: “I am a terrible person. By the time you read this I won’t be alive. Billy loves you more than anyone I’ve ever seen. Take care of yourself. Love, me.”
Tom Gilbert, chief of detectives at the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office, said Sunday that the deliberately set fire put neighbors at risk.
“We’re lucky those houses didn’t catch fire,” Gilbert said of the man’s neighbors on either side.
Amid news of a criminal investigation, hundreds of gawkers have been driving down the street this week to see the charred remains, then circling back and leaving the way they came.
Neighbors described Steele as a friendly man, someone who would bring their trash cans up from the curb.
Suzanne Pinto, who lives on the block, said she was shocked to learn that the fire was intentional, and that a woman had also been killed.
“I just thought at first it was a tragic accident,” she said. “Boy, was I wrong.”
Inquirer news developer Chris A. Williams contributed to this article.