A horrible story is unfolding in Dutchess County Friday. The bodies of five people, including three children, were pulled from a house that caught fire in on Route 82 in Hopewell Junction this morning.
Investigators say the fire was intentionally set and at least some of the victims may have been dead before it started.
Eyewitness News reporter Marcus Solis has more.
State police say they are still in the early stages of the investigation, now a murder investigation. The relationship and the identities of the victims have not yet been released. Sources say, among those killed, are children ages 5, 9 and 13.
State police investigators are still going through what's left of the house. It's a fire scene that has now become a crime scene. Just before 3 a.m., a passerby called 911 reporting a house fire. As photographs show, the white house on Route 82 was completely engulfed in flames. Police say what emergency crews found tells them this was no accident.
"It would appear at this point that there's multiple victims of a homicide, and that the fire is an arson," State Police Major William Carey said.
Police will not comment on the motive and refused to say whether the victims were killed first, or if some died in the fire. The house was being rented, and police say they had been called out to the location in the past. About a mile away, a second crime scene was connected to the investigation. Police found a car on fire about 20 minutes after the original blaze.
"It was all engulfed in flames," Hopewell Junction resident Lynn Baycora said. "It was shooting up, and there was black smoke and everything."
As of now, police will only confirm that there are multiple victims, and children included among them.
"And for the firemen and the officers there...it's definitely tough," Fishkill Police Chief Don Williams said.
Police will not comment whether they are looking for a suspect or whether the person responsible may be included among those killed.
Copyright 2007 WABC-TV.
Republished with permission of WABC-TV.
