Police are investigating a “suspicious” fire near St. Louis that killed a woman and four children.
Firefighters were called to a home in Ferguson at 4:23 a.m. Monday and found the building engulfed in flames. St. Louis County police Sgt. Tracy Panus said the five people who died were found inside the home.
Panus said in an email that “evidence located on the property” made the cause of the fire suspicious, but she declined to elaborate. St. Louis Regional Bomb and Arson detectives are assisting in the investigation.
Police hadn’t named the victims as of Tuesday morning but did describe them as a woman and four children.
Relatives and neighbors told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Bernadine Pruessner lived in the home with her four children. Pruessner’s father, Cordell Beache, told the newspaper that his daughter was “an amazing person” with “very bright” children.
Although he couldn’t confirm whether they had died, he told the newspaper that he hadn’t heard from them since the fire.
Beache said his daughter was close to receiving her doctorate in early childhood education. She was working as an assistant professor in the child development department at Lewis & Clark Community College in Godfrey, Illinois.
Chickens and rabbits survived the fire, but three dogs died, police said.
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