Indiana house exdplosion update

[Wes Groleau]

Kills himself trying to do what put his father in prison.

Intelligence sure runs in that family.

[Moe DeLoughan]

Particularly since the family name and the local memory of his dad's misdeed caused the investigators to immediately note the curious coincidence, and shortly thereafter find the evidence substantiating their suspicion.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Even a bad explosion can get the job done. Not hard to do at all. Source of ignition? Give me 15 minutes and I'll have a few rigged. Give me $20 and an hour and I'll have a dozen rigged.

[gfretwell]

The trick is doing it without leaving an incriminating piece of evidence. The best might be as simple as a candle burning at one end of the house and a burner on the stove turned on at the other. Put a pan of water on the stove to make it plausible that you were cooking something or simply adding humidity to the house.

[harry]

Lots of conjecture here by non-experts. Let's have some links to people found guilty of murder by engineering a gas leak and subsequent explosion.

It will also fail when the proposed victims smell gas.

Plenty of fictional cases out there.

Hence the confusion in many minds on this group

[Kurt Ullman]

And it is looking more and more like it was deliberate.

[trader4]

You don't have to INTEND to kill someone. Like in this case. It could have been done to collect insurance, not to kill someone. Still, if someone is killed unintentionally, you can be charged with murder.

As for previous cases, how about this one:

Josh Powell tried to kill his two young sons with a hatchet before the flames of the fiery explosion he had ignited engulfed them all, police said today.

Powell, 36, failed to kill his sons Charles, 7, and Braden, 5, but still wounded them horribly before they died -- smoke in their lungs

-- in the gas-fueled explosion Sunday, according to police and the medical examiner.

Or how about this from, of all places, the UK:

"Gas engineer, 32, arrested on suspicion of manslaughter over blast that killed toddler and destroyed four homes 'may have examined boiler in one of the houses days before the explosion'

Read more:

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[harry]

But not deliberate. Just by bad luck all the conditions were fulfilled for an explosion. Most accidents are the result of several factors converging.

Like the Texas train smash. The truck stopped. The train was coming. The people on the float were disabled and couldn't escape.

[Arthur Shapiro]

I'd board my cats if it were even one night. To leave them alone for three days would be totally irresponsible, bordering on animal cruelty.

Art

[chaniarts]

your cats probably won't even deign to notice that you're not there for a week. given a bowl of food and water, and a litter box, a normal cat won't care if someone is there until the food bowl is empty.

[Pete C.]

My cat certainly notices when I'm gone, but does just fine for a long weekend. When I return she has kept track of how many days of attention and treats are owed.

It is sure sounding like the explosion was the work of the ex-wife and/or boyfriend.

[Kurt Ullman]

INteresting. Most of my buddies that have cats would just leave them there with plenty of food and water.

[Kurt Ullman]

The BF's brother has a white van... just mentioning it, not making accusations (grin).

[clare]

There is a difference between Natural Gas and Propane. With propane being heavier than air a basement gas leak can go undetected, smell-wise - and still explode. NG is a bit different - being lighter than air the smell gets around a lot faster.

[Robert Green]

If you ever wondered whether dogs or cats can count, take out three treats and give them only one.

-- Bobby G.

[Robert Green]

If the gas is leaking in the basement of an enclosed house, it would probably escape through the attic vents or the chimney and be dispersed high above the ground. Then, since it's lighter than air it would rise up. A whole house could fill with gas without anyone at ground level having any idea there was a leak.

While there's a whole lot of circumstantial evidence here, it's going to be very hard to prove arson beyond a reasonable doubt short of toolmarks and fingerprints on the tools that made those marks.

-- Bobby G.

[Kurt Ullman]

Ve haf vays of mecking the scene talk (grin). Computer trails to websites about the workings of furnaces and/or furnace explosions past. If there was a timer or ignition device for the purposes of alibi establishment (or even just a lack of death wish on the part of the person setting up the blast) that can be traced back. There are many others. These guys aren't rocket scientists, so they likely left some kind of trail. The main problem will probably be finding it in the destruction. AT least when I was involved, the IFD arson guys were good and the ATF arson team was made up of wizards.

[Jim Elbrecht]

IMO- There are too many people involved. Somebody will cut a deal.

Jim

[trader4]

How can you say it's going to be very hard to prove when you don't have any idea of what the actual evidence is? They could for example have already found a timer or other device used for ignition and have videos from the hardware store when the arsonist bought it. Or they could have witnesses who knew it was being planned and what they were up to. Most criminals are a lot dumber than you think.

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Oren: