ANDERSON, Ind. (AP) -- Police charged a man with two preliminary counts of murder and arson in a house fire in which his wife and 9-year-old son died.
Police on Monday arrested Rex David Delph, 40, in the deaths of his wife, Robynn, 41, and their son, Joshua.
Delph would have received $345,000 in insurance, said police Detective Terry Sollars.
``He had also met someone on a chat room from Washington,'' Sollars wrote in an affidavit of probable cause. ''He was talking with her on the telephone up to 30 minutes before the fire.''
When firefighters arrived, the downstairs and front porch were engulfed in flames and they could not enter.
``David Delph made absolutely no attempt to save his wife and son, and in fact never told anyone, including firefighters, where they could be located,'' the affidavit states.
Sollars said two neighbors reported that Delph never told them his wife and son were in the house, only that they were missing.
Robynn and Joshua Delph were found dead inside Joshua's room. An autopsy showed they died from smoke inhalation.
Delph originally told investigators that his wife woke him because she smelled smoke.
Police questioned Delph immediately after the fire. Sollars said he detected no smell of smoke nor heavy smoke or soot on him.
An arson dog detected accelerants in three spots on the porch and on the shirt and socks worn by Delph at the time of the fire.
Madison County Prosecutor Rodney Cummings said there were problems with Delph's account of what happened.
''It is not possible for it to have happened the way he said it did,'' Cummings said.
