W.Va. Farmer Finds Family Dead in Barn Fire Debris
Source Charleston Daily Mail (West Virginia)
A Lewis County man returned home Monday morning to find his barn burned to the ground with his wife and children dead inside.
Deputy state fire marshal Reed Cook said firefighters were dispatched around 7:51 a.m. Monday to 732 Coopers Run Road in Alum Bridge, about 12 miles west of Weston.
The barn already had burned when emergency workers arrived, however. Cook said no one called 911 when the barn was ablaze, so emergency personnel did not respond.
"It was found by the husband. He came in from work this morning and found the debris from the fire," Cook said.
The barn is next to a home about a mile from U.S. 33 up Crooked Run Road, a single-lane gravel road. The structure is visible from the road, but there are no other residences nearby.
Cook said the man's two children and their mother were inside the barn, but he did not know their names, ages, or any details of the circumstances surrounding their deaths.
Investigators sent their bodies to the State Medical Examiner's Office in Charleston for identification and autopsies.
The Lewis County Sheriff's Department, West Virginia State Police and the State Fire Marshal's Office responded to the scene Monday. Cook said his investigators still were sorting through evidence.
The lead investigator in the case, Deputy Bobby Ryan of the Lewis County Sheriff's Department, said he also could not release any information about the victims.
"The only thing I can say now is that it's under investigation," he said.
Ryan said police likely would not release any additional information soon.
"It's going to be a while. At least a week," he said.
Contact writer Zack Harold at 304-348-7939 or zack.harold
@dailymail.com. Follow him at www.twitter.com/ZackHarold.
Copyright 2012 Charleston Newspapers
