And the other major development is that the family now suspects the fire that destroyed their home on Elston Kerr Street and sent 13 year old Robert Anthony Lord to the emergency room was intentionally set. Today the family of the burned victim not only told 7News that they strongly believe that the blaze was deliberately set but took us back to the scene and showed us what they say is evidence to support their suspicion.
According to Dennis Tillett who lives next door to where the fire started, just before the fire started he was awakened sometime before three on Thursday morning by the sounds of dogs barking and as he looked through the window - he saw three young women running away from the direction of the Trapp residence. According to Tillett who is also cousin to the burned victim on Wednesday night the same three young women were heard making threats against Kimberly Trapp’s residence suggesting that something would happen.
Dennis Tillett,
“At that time I didn’t pay it no mind that it was a fire or they were setting up something to burn up somebody’s house. So when I got up afterwards, like ten minutes after, I heard my auntie bawling and saying Dennis come outside and help me because my son is in the house. So when I came out and peeped I saw her house was not fire but I saw the neighbour’s house which is besides her was on fire but at the time when the house was on fire my uncle and a crowd of people were already around the house and then I heard my auntie told me, her son is in the house, Robert who is my little cousin and nobody wanted to help or nothing like that. So I took into my own hands
and I ran behind the house and kicked open the blinds and jumped in and so me and my uncle hauled Robert out of the house and put him down on the ground because of the heat I left him on the ground and ran across the street to try to get some breath because the heat was on my body without a shirt.
I would say about 7:30 to 8 in the night before this fire occurred, the next morning and so forth, we were hanging out in front of my house, me, my sisters, and some of her friends, and these same three young ladies were walking on the sidewalk and we heard them started throwing comments and saying tonight, tonight they will deal with something – pointing directly to the house that burnt the same morning. But besides that, I don’t want to put myself in the situation because my little cousin is in the hospital already and he is on life support and he might need to fly out and those things. But to cut a long story short, the same three young ladies, it hurt me so bad that I ran out of my house and when 3:30 when the fire was going on, the three young ladies were standing right up in front of we watching this fire and talking and giggling up to themselves.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
Where did the fire start from?
Dennis Tillett,
“Well the fire start from right over here. I guarantee this is not an electrical fire and the person whosever lives there, they know that she was threatened already before and that they had a misunderstanding with a young lady. So definitely I don’t want to get into a back and forth, I just want unu know exactly that it is arson and it not electrical. That is all I want the media to know.”
Jacqueline Godwin,
Did you guys find any evidence to support your strong suspicion?
Dennis Tillett,
“Well I have evidence because I came by myself, I am not a fireman, and I am not nobody that is that perfect to say how the fire start but if you look at the house and we went around and examined the house, there is one part of the house exactly that was burnt sufficiently that directly you could see that it was kerosene that was thrown there and a match or something ignited that fire and not the house. That is a guarantee.”
Dennis Tillett says he will be making a statement to the fire officials and the police. In the meantime, the family say it was they who rescued Robert Anthony Lord from the burning building and not the fire fighters who responded to the scene. The family says by the time the fire trucks arrived their cousin had already been rushed the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.
