The death of a South Florida doctor who was pulled from her burning mansion in Plantation nearly two years ago was not classified as an accident, a suicide or a homicide for lack of “definitive evidence,” according to newly released reports.

On Dec. 5, 2024, the early-morning fire killed Dr. Karen Elizabeth Ruthman, 60, who ran a boutique family medicine practice in Weston. Medical Examiner’s Office reports and police reports obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel provide new details, including that “an accelerant was used to start the fire” that began in the living room and eventually fully engulfed the inside of the home.

Plantation Police released 41 pages of police incident reports Tuesday in response to a Sun Sentinel public records request. The investigation was closed in January, the records show.

Investigators found no probable cause to bring charges in Ruthman’s death or the fire, and the Florida State Bureau of Fire Investigations noted her injuries were “more consistent with her starting the fire,” according to the police reports obtained by the Sun Sentinel.

Undetermined manner of death

The fire at Ruthman’s $2 million home was started with an accelerant, but “definitive evidence” of the person or people who used it to start the fire “has not been determined,” according to the autopsy report signed in September 2025 by two associate medical examiners in Broward County. Ruthman’s manner of death was ruled undetermined as a result.

Her cause of death is listed as inhalation of products of combustion and thermal injuries. She had burns on both of her hands and face. The autopsy report also noted blunt-force injuries to her neck and bruises on her arms and legs.

Officers who were present during the autopsy were allowed to “observe the decedent’s facial area for signs of hair singe” and found none, one of the 41 police reports said.

Throughout the arson investigation, Plantation officers collected DNA swabs, executed multiple search warrants, searched Ruthman’s and her longtime romantic partner’s phones as well as his car and medical office.

Ruthman’s partner, who is not named in the Medical Examiner’s Office reports, called 911 to report an argument with Ruthman and told the operator “that she was attempting to set the house on fire,” a Medical Examiner’s Office investigator’s report said.

Her partner is identified in the police reports as Dr. Barrington Murray. He declined to comment when the Sun Sentinel reached him by phone last week.

Murray, who is also a doctor with an office in Plantation, first called 911 at 3:42 a.m., said “Um it’s a fire” and gave the address of the home in the 12000 block of Northwest 23rd Court.

Murray told the operator the fire was burning in the living room and that “she started a fire. I don’t know what’s going on in her head,” according to one police report. Asked who he was referring to and his relationship to the woman, Murray said “the owner of the house” and “we live together.”

Murray said as he left the house, he “looked back and she started the fire” and that he was driving away from the home in his Porsche. The operator told him to wait at the end of the road for officers, but instead he drove to his office, the report said.

One of the 911 calls that morning came from Ruthman’s phone number a few minutes later, the reports obtained by the Sun Sentinel show. The woman who called told an operator she was upstairs and was the only person inside the house, according to one police report obtained by the Sun Sentinel. The 911 operator heard what sounded like the caller moving through the house, an alarm sounding and a door closing, but the woman stopped answering the operator’s questions.

Officers tried to enter the home when they arrived about 3:45 a.m. but found the front door locked and a burned 5-gallon gas can outside the door, according to the investigator’s report. They could not get into the burning home.

Plantation Fire Rescue saw flames and smoke billowing from the home as they arrived and forced their way inside by breaking through a glass door, police reports said.

In the home where flames had spread across the first floor, two firefighters wearing breathing apparatus began their search, struggling to see and hear through the “extreme amount of smoke,” one police report said. They found Ruthman lying in a second-floor bedroom.

Despite attempts to save her, Ruthman was pronounced dead at HCA Florida Westside Hospital just before 5 a.m., the Medical Examiner’s investigator’s report said.

Police investigation

Plantation Police dispatchers called Murray again just before 4 a.m. to ask him to meet with officers so they could get access to the home. He replied, “I really don’t want to do that,” an incident report said.

“[Murray] ignored law enforcement’s instructions to wait at the end of the street near his residence and instead, drove to his office, leaving his long-time girlfriend in a home engulfed in flames,” the incident report said. “[Murray] was at his office for approximately one hour before making physical contact with law enforcement.”

The Medical Examiner’s Office report said Ruthman’s partner smelled of gas and his clothes were wet when officers met with him. One police report noted Murray smelled of gas as officers spoke with him.

In a voluntary interview, Murray told an officer he and Ruthman had been in a relationship for 23 years and have a son together. Murray said they had an argument that morning where she accused him of infidelity. Then they went to separate parts of the house, and he fell asleep, the incident report said.

“He then woke up to Karen in the living room with the carpets of the area soaked in gasoline and her holding a can of matches,” Murray told officers, according to the report.

Murray told officers he then got dressed, locked the door as he left the home and drove away. After he called 911, Murray told officers he tried multiple times to call Ruthman but did not get in touch with her, the report said, and left the home because he was so “freaked out.”

Murray insisted he did not start the fire and did not know his partner, who made all of their preparations for hurricane season, had multiple gas cans inside their garage. He “could not explain how or why” the burned gas can ended up outside the home near the front door, the police report said.

“Once I notified [Murray] that Karen was deceased, he refused to believe it. He said it was not possible to for her to die from smoke inhalation because the house was too large,” the police report said.

Murray agreed to a voice stress analysis test while speaking with detectives, another report said. Asked if he started the fire and if he placed the gas can outside the front door, Murray answered he did not to both. The investigator in her analysis wrote he did not show “any stressors or indication that he was being untruthful of any questions asked of him,” according to the report.

The next day as officers processed items taken as evidence and others collected from the home, they tested a “reddish brown stain” that was found on Murray’s shirt for blood, an incident report said. The results were negative.

Murray’s voluntary sworn statements to police with several different investigators were consistent, according to the last detailed incident report in the case from Jan. 1, 2026: that Ruthman argued with him about an alleged affair, started pouring gas in the living room while he slept on the couch and then set the house on fire when he left. Murray did not have any signs of injuries, which the Florida State Bureau of Fire Investigations said the person who started the fire would have.

Any possible charges in Ruthman’s death were never presented to prosecutors, a Broward State Attorney’s Office spokesperson said last week in an email.

Several of Ruthman’s immediate family members did not respond to a reporter’s voicemails or messages seeking comment last week.

‘Glue’ of family

Originally from Williamstown, Mass., Ruthman graduated from Smith College and attended medical school at the University of Massachusetts, according to a paid obituary published in the Sun Sentinel. She completed her family medicine residency at Georgetown University, was an assistant professor at the University of Maryland and University of Miami and ran her Weston practice, Ruthman Medical Group.

Her relatives described her in the obituary as “the glue for the Ruthman family.”

“Karen enjoyed traveling and was adventurous, taking trips around the world, going white water rafting, and even taking a swamp walk in the Everglades,” her obituary said. “She was always helping others and was loved by everyone whose life she touched. Karen was passionate about women’s rights and supporting women in politics. She will be remembered for her endless energy and enthusiasm for life.”

The obituary did not mention Murray.

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