A mother, son and his girlfriend are believed to have been murdered inside a home that was then set ablaze.
Kelly Masciarelli, 54, Kolin Foster, 23, and Cameryn Richard, 21, were all found dead in Masciarelli’s home in Harris County, Texas, on Sunday morning, in the wake of the still-unexplained house fire.
Investigators who descended on the Cypress Mill Park Community went on to air the belief that all three had been dead before the fire started, while ordering autopsies.
An official cause of death for the trio will have to wait until then, as detectives added how they hope surveillance video seized from the suburban area will shed more light on the incident.
The state of the bodies when they were found, moreover, remains unknown, but according to Sgt. Michael Ritchie, the fact their deaths was not an accident was already readily apparent.
Scroll down for video:
Kelly Masciarelli, 54, died at some point before the fire at her home in Texas Sunday morning, cops said
Her son, Kolin Foster, 23, and his girlfriend, Cameryn Richard, 21, were also found dead at the residence, after which cops said their deaths were likely not an accident nor the result of smoke inhalation
‘We are willing to say that, these individuals looked like they were deceased before the fire was started,’ the Harris County Sheriff’s sergeant said Sunday outside the house in Cypress.
‘So this is definitely a homicide, not accidental deaths due to due to fire and smoke inhalation,’ he concluded.
A vintage red Corvette seen being towed from the scene, he added, is now ‘an area of interest’ for detectives, after it was found in the home’s driveway.
The vehicle did not appeared burned in the slightest, but was still seized.
Detectives would only say that Foster, who weeks earlier celebrated his 23rd birthday, had recently bought the car, and that the previous owner, who was not identified, had nothing to do with the incident.
Most notably, officers stated their belief Foster was not the last person to drive the car – with a neighbor telling Click2Houston they heard a car door slam before police arrived.
Others questioned said they did not hear anything before the house was enfulfed in flames – a fire that was quickly put out by first-responders following their arrival around 7am.
They quickly discerned that the blaze was the result of arson, said Maj. Saul Suarez of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, who also spoke about the case at the scene.
The fire broke out at Masciarelli’s home in Harris County, Texas, sometime before 7am Sunday morning, and has yet to be explained. Foul play is believed to be the cause
Cameryn Richard, 21, was in the house with the mother and son before the fire broke out, and died as well
‘Upon our arrival, our homicide team determined also that the bodies had signs of foul play and also had trauma,’ he revealed, as constables from the Harris County Precinct 4 worked around him.
Also present were members of the Harris County Fire Marshal’s Office, who were successful in containing the blaze before it could spread outside.
None of the three agencies had any significant updates as to the status of their investigation Monday morning, though Deputy Chief Mitchell Weston of the fire marshal’s office said most of the home’s interior was damaged by the fire.
He could not state what caused the catastrophe, though cops believe it was the result of foul play.
This is a developing story; please check back for updates.