The 1997 Fordham Fire

All witnesses, suspects, and purses of interest are considered innocent until proven guilty in a. Court of law. Welcome to Primetime Crime. I'm your host, Kylie. Let's talk right now in true crime, and then together we're going to work on warming up some cold cases. Let's go. Hey, guys, welcome to this week's episode of Primetime Crime. It's Kylie. We are going to dive into a little right now in true crime. Before we get into this week's episode, I have a few things to talk about. I'm going to try to condense. It as much as I can, and we're going to get into it. So first up, we are talking about the Tepee murders, the murders of Spencer and Monique Tepe. Like I said in last week's episode, they arrested Monique's ex husband, Michael McKee, doctor Michael McKee for the murders, and over the last week they have upgraded the charges to that of premeditated murder with firearms specifications and burglary. They said that Michael allegedly used a silencer when killing his two victims inside of the house. The couple's two children were inside of the house, which has to be just horrible for them. I can't even imagine. They're young, one and four, but still can't even imagine all of that transpiring and them being. There at the house. Michael is going to be in court on Friday at one pm in Franklin County and. That is in Ohio. I will keep you guys updated as this one is kind of ever evolving. I feel like new things are coming out daily. If this does end up going to trial in the long run, I think we're going to find out a lot because there's still a lot of questions surrounding this one. How did he get inside? They obviously had been separated for a long time. They had been married a short time, they had been separated a long time. It's all going to be very interesting his motive behind this, why he did what he did, It doesn't really make a lot of sense unless he was obsessed with her and didn't like the fact that she had remarried, even though it had been several years that she had been married. She had two children with Spencer. I don't know, but it's going to be very interesting to see how this one all transpires. In the Gilgo Beach. Serial killer Rex Humerman, they have set a trial date. It's going to start shortly after Labor Day of this year, so we're looking at a September twenty, twenty sixth trial for him. Again, it's going to be very interesting. I do feel like there are some things that haven't come out yet that. Will come out in trial. I'm going to be really interested to see what they end up doing as far as the prosecution and the defense, how they're going to work on calling witnesses. Who the witnesses are going to be, especially for the defense. Are his daughter and wife going. To testify on his behalf. I have so many questions. I don't know how everything's going to go down, but we are going to see it all play out in September hopefully. So last week's episode, I did a case update episode, and the first case I talked about on there was Ellen Greenberg. And at the time that I recorded it, I did not know this. This came out literally right before I released the episode, and I wasn't going to go back and re record it. I figured we would just talk about it today. So pretty much right after I recorded that segment and right before I was getting ready to press publish on it last week, they came out and said that the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania is very interested in the Ellen Greenberg case, and the federal government has requested documents and information from the Philadelphia Police Department and other agencies. Now we don't really know to what extent they are looking into things, but what matters is that they're looking into things enough that they. Are even going this route. Because we've been down this road before, except it's all been local agencies. This is the first time that there is an outside agency actually getting involved in asking questions, and that I think is so important and maybe we are headed in the right direction. And it just shows you that Ellen's family, all of the public uproar, all of the coverage of Ellen's case is what is helping propel this forward. If you sit back and stay quiet and don't really talk about it, then people aren't hearing about it and people aren't questioning things. So this is another example of how important it is to stick to your gut instinct. Whatever your gut is telling you, stick to it, speak on it, believe in it, and don't be afraid to get loud, and hopefully something will come of this. I am very hopeful for this. I know Ellen's family is hopeful this is a step in the right direction, and we're just going to cross our fingers that they are able to find something in their investigation that leads them in a different direction other than saying that Ellen's death was a suicide. I will be sure to keep you guys updated on that one. Ellen's case is one that has year after year, update after update. We're unfortunately still in the same boat we were in back when this happened. But at least this time I am hopeful that things are trending in the right direction and maybe we will have a different outcome and we might finally get some answers, or at least we're going to hopefully have a little bit more clarity on everything with this outside investigation that's going to be happening. So fingers crossed justice for Ellen. I don't think she did that to herself. You'll never convince me otherwise, and that is a hill that I will stand on until the end of time. Breaking news in another cold case, the Colonial Parkway murders, has been solved thanks to new technology. I say it all the time. Time is running out, So after nearly four decades, federal investigators announced that they have identified the killer behind one of Virginia's most haunting and chilling cold cases. Last week, the FBI announced that advances in forensic technology have linked the nineteen eighty six murders of Kathleen Thomas and Rebecca Dowski, who have been notably victims of the infamous Colonial Parkway murders, to a suspect who is responsible for at least six killings. He was determined to be a man named Alan Wade Wilmer, Senior, and he is the man now who they said murdered these two women who were lasting together on October ninth of nineteen eighty six at a computer lab at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. He was a local fisherman in Virginia who died in twenty seventeen at the age of sixty three, and he has been connected to a series of at least six murders or disappearances of young individuals in Virginia between nineteen eighty six and nineteen eighty nine. Both of these. Victims were stabbed and strangled, and it is unclear if they were also sexually assaulted. Although he did pass away in twenty seventeen. Like I said, the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said that if he were still alive, that the evidence is enough that they would have been able to prosecute him to the fullest. They also have said that he's responsible for the nineteen eighty seven murders of David Nobling and Robin Edwards, who was fourteen, and the nineteen eighty nine homicide of Teresa Linn Spall, how and that was in. Hampton, Virginia. She was twenty nine years old. Now, he was never convicted of any crime before he passed away in twenty seventeen. His DNA was never uploaded to COTIS for that reason. So I am fairly confident, and just given the fact that he did commit at least six murders that we know of, I'm sure he does have other victims. I am sure that there is going to be more that comes out. They're going to be able to tie more to him. But this is just another great example of technology catching up and their time running out. Unfortunately, he is no longer here. He's been gone almost ten years now, but at least the families have a little bit of knowledge about what happened, who was responsible, and they can live knowing that this person is not going to harm anybody else like their family members were harmed. This as a horrific human. I'm probably going to do an episode on the murders that he's tied to and kind of delve into that a little bit, because this was a huge cold case. The Colonial Parkway murders is one of Virginia's most famous cold case mysteries, and just like with Austin yogurt Chop, it being tied back to this one guy. He has a similar mo in all of the murders he commits. And it's just really interesting how technology is advancing so rapidly and so fast that the cold cases that have been called for decades are now being solved. I think that is so amazing, and I'm so hopeful that we're not going to have decades long cold cases anymore because of all of this technology. Something happens now in present day, twenty twenty six, I'm hopeful that it's going to be solved a lot quicker than these cases that happened way back in nineteen eighty six, forty years ago. That is it for right now in true crime. I'll keep you guys updated on anything new that happens in the next week, but we are going to go ahead and get into today's episode. Alrighty, guys, Today we are diving into a brand new unsolved case. In today's episode, I'm going to be telling you about the Fordom Fire of nineteen ninety seven, a suspected arson case that took the lives of nine people in East Palo Alto, California, and changed many families' lives forever. Four other family members and for firefighters were also injured in the blaze. I want this episode to be victim focused. I want to honor the victims. I want to talk about the circumstances surrounding what happened for. What is believed to be an arson case. There were also some other things at play here that led to this fire becoming such a tragic event and resulting in the loss of so many. Before we get into it, I do want to shout out my friend and coworker James for recommending this case to me. He grew up in East Palo Alto and his family had their own tragedy that struck in East Palo Alto with the murder of his uncle, which is still an unsolved case, and I will be covering his uncle's murder in a future episode, but I wanted to cover this one, and we are going to go ahead and get into it now. So let's go back to April twenty sixth of nineteen ninety seven Fordham Street in East Palo Alto, California. It was early Saturday morning when a nine one one call came in around six h nine am. The report said that a home. Located at two five eight two Fordham Street was on fire and as many as fifteen residents were trapped inside. A neighbor recalled that an elderly woman lived in the house with three daughters, a son, and nine grandchildren. The house was one story and about two thousand square feet. Three minutes after this came in, the first unit of firefighters arrived, A second alarm was indicated, and the remainder of the firefighters arrived shortly thereafter, about three dozen of them. Upon arrival, firefighters were faced with quite the battle, not just the two alarm fire that they had in front of them, but there were multiple cars. There was about five cars parked in front of the home. There was three aggressive dogs, two pipples and a rottweiler who were trying to defend their property. There were burglar bars on the windows and padlocks on the doors. The garage was also nailed shut. It was also later discovered that the home did not have a working smoke detector. Firefighters were finally able to make entrance to the home through the melted windows near the front door. They ended up also breaking a window and they were able to get in. After about twenty minutes, fire crews had put the fire out. But there was so much more to this story. In total, eleven victims were pulled out of the home. All but two were deceased. We are gonna talk more in detail about the victims shortly, but the two who were pulled out by the firefighters were thirty seven year old Kenneth McKean and Devin McKean, who was only eleven years old. Both of them suffered from smoke inhalation and burns. Two other family members, one named Teresa Cotton who's twenty eight, and the grandmother the owner of the home, Vernon McKean, seventy eight. Both of them managed to escape the burning home before firefighters arrived. They both did sustain burns and respiratory problems. However, now Teresa Cotton, who I said was twenty eight years old, she ended up passing away a year later, almost to the day, as a result of complications related to the fire, bringing the total fire related deaths to ten. I'm now going to name all of the victims, and we are going to get into a little bit more about them as the episode goes, but I want to take a minute and say their names. Jamays Moseley, Darcy Dixon, Danta Price, Angelica Raymond, Sonya mcnack, Anthony Taylor, Kneita Rivers, Bonnie Thompson, and Alma Campbell. Out of those nine, five of them are children. So this is such a devastating case. Knowing that nine people lost their lives, so many children lost their lives, it is. Just beyond tragic. There were also four firefighters who were injured in the blaze as well during their battle to put it out. Now, initially, investigators thought that this didn't seem like a regular fire, so they quickly started to believe that there was something more at play here and that they were likely dealing with an arson case. They did believe that the fire started near the car port. There were, like I said, many cars parked near the home, and and they believed that the cars that were parked under the carport had been doused in gasoline and then set ablaze, causing the fire to quickly spread to the home. They took samples and did their investigation in order to determine that this was in fact an arson. The Fordham Fire remained San Mateo County's single largest unsolved multiple homicide. So many people lost their lives that day, and not just that, but the ripple effect of those lives lost, those injured, those who survived in the community as a whole. It still greatly impacts the community to this day and the families. On the twentieth anniversary of the fire in twenty seventeen, the family and community decided to hold an event and it was in front of the now rebuilt home on Fordham Street. They invited firefighters who brought a fire engine. They invited community children and they were able to explore the fire engine. They had face painting and bounce houses and balloons, and they wanted to celebrate the lives of those that were lost that day In nineteen ninety seven, family and friends donned white shirts that had the images of those lost that day to remember them, and they released nine white doves in their honor. Vernon McKean, who was the family matriarch one of the ones who escaped the fire, has since passed away due to cancer, but she deeply struggled with. What happened that day. She had the house rebuilt, but she could never go back there. She said, there were so many bad memories associated with that home. She lost so many members of her family that day, she could never bring herself to go back there. But the home was rebuilt. And from what I've been told, it looks pretty much identical to the home that was there. They rebuilt it exactly the same same property, same layout, out, everything is pretty much the same, and Verna's sun now lives there. So why would anybody want to target this family? The family was very well liked and well known by everybody in the community, always willing to help people out. They basically had an open door policy and everyone that wanted to come to the home was welcome in the home, and they were genuinely just really really kind people. So the fact that someone went out of their way. To set a fire to their home and destroy so many lives is baffling, especially the lives of these poor children who were inside. Although motive is unknown, one. Article I did read said investigators believe the fire was set as an act of revenge against a family member who was not home at the time. Now I don't know the validity of that. The article that I got that from is going to be linked below in the show notes, and I do want to be transparent that that was the own article I could find that really said anything about a motive or why somebody would want to do this, So I do want to be clear about it. Nobody has ever been charged in connection with this fire, hence why I'm covering. This case now. But that was mentioned and I wanted to include it. But of course, as always, do your own research, take everything with a grain of salt until proven Otherwise we don't know if that is the case or not. Now, one thing that really. Doesn't get talked about much in this case is one of the victims, Bonnie Thompson. She was actually a hero that day. She was tasked with the choice of saving her mother or her daughter. Now, she wanted, of course, to do everything she could to save as many people as possible, and she was able to safely get her mom, Verna out of the house, and she herself was out of the house, but she went back inside to get her daughter, Keneita Rivers. Unfortunately, when she went back in, the flames were just way too much and both of them perished in the fire that day. But Bonnie ran into a. Burning home to save her child and sacrificed her own life. And I have no doubt that she would have gone back in again and again and again until she saved everybody in that home if she had the opportunity. But the fire was just too much for her. So despite this tragedy being what it was, such a huge tragedy, nine people losing their lives and a year later a tenth person losing her life, it did bring about some new legislation. State Senators Barbara Lee and Richard Polanco introduced a bill which was signed in nineteen ninety eight and became effective on January first of nineteen ninety nine. So this law prohibits the sale and installation of the unopenable burglar bars, which is exactly what. Was on the home that was on fire. That day. They had really really hard time getting into the home because they had these burglar bars on there, and they didn't have a quick release latch, so they were not able to get in to safely remove everybody from the home, and that was a big obstacle. Now, East Palo Alto, once upon a time was the murder capital of the world and there was a lot of crime that transpired there in the nineties, So the fact that most homes had these burglar bars on the windows. Was not surprising. But what a lot of people didn't know is that they were also illegal because in a situation like this, when you need to get in, you're not able to and when you're faced with an emergency situation, you're also not able to escape and get out. So there was a lot of problems with these burglar bars. So this law that was passed allows the sale of only bars and safety release mechanisms that were tested and approved. By the state Fire Marshal. They also somewhere along the line a yearly amended the law and they wanted to include some education in that that requires a state fire marshal to mount a public education effort of the dangers of these illegal burglar bars because a lot of these people, they don't realize the dangers. They want to protect themselves, they want to protect their home, and they think the burglar bars are really the best thing to do, and they don't know any better because that education isn't available to them. So this amendment to the law really made that education available. So the Menlo Park District, they spearheaded a program where they offered free upgrades to low income families which replaced their window bars with the kind that have that release mechanism, and they also decided that they were going to offer to install smoke detectors for all of the homes. A lot of these people were low income, they didn't have the resources to really keep themselves safe, and everything that happened with the Fordham fire really opened a lot of people's eyes and they decided to make a change so something like this wouldn't happen again. So that can really be the silver lining of such a horrible case like this. Yes, a lot of people did lose their lives, a lot of children lost their lives, but it also made some really big important changes in the laws, especially around East Palo Alto, San Mateo County and I'm sure with everything that they did back then immediately after this happened, it really helped. Save a lot of lives in the long run. So now I want to get into a little bit about each of the victims. There isn't really a ton out there. I was able to find some articles that highlighted different things about the different victims, and I wanted to take a minute to remember them, talk a little bit about who they were, and honor them the best way that we know how. So first up, we have Jamasi Mo. I don't know if I'm pronouncing her name correctly. I do know that they called her Macy, and that was kind of her nickname. And she was the youngest victim. Now I've seen her age different. I've seen two, I've seen four. I'm not exactly sure how old she was, but she was the youngest victim, and she is described as friendly and outgoing, and she would always scream out hello to people who she saw passing by in front of the house. She was friendly, outgoing, she had the cutest smile. I'm going to be posting pictures of all of the victims on my social media, so be sure to follow me over there. And she just seemed like she was the cutest, most bubbly little girl ever. Sonia bick Knack, who was twenty years old, was the mother of Jamaisi, and Sonia loved going and dancing at clubs. And there was a neighbor who recalls how truly friendly and funny Sonya was. And the neighbor said that Sonya was a comedian. She was so funny, she could always make you laugh, and she was just that girl. Darcy Dixon Junior, who went by DJ, he had just turned six just days before the fire on April tenth. He was in kindergarten at Castano and he was cousins with Anthony Taylor. Now, a lot of the children did live at the home, but there were some who were visiting that night for a sleepover, and I think Anthony Taylor might have been one of them who was just. Visiting that night. DJ enjoyed working on the new computers that his classroom had just gotten, and that was one of his favorite things to do. Now think back to nineteen ninety seven. When I was in school in nineteen ninety seven, having a computer and going to a computer. Lab was one of my favorite things. So I think it is so sweet that DJ enjoyed playing with the new computers that his class had. Just Scott Dante Price, aged eleven, he was in fifth grade as well at Castano. A friend remembers that he always had a sucker in his mouth and was always riding his bike around the neighborhood. That is how he is remembered, and I'm sure he was an amazing kid. Angelica Raymond, who was aged seven, she was in second grade at Castano. A friend remembers. That she used to sing to the flowers and sometimes at recess she would have grass in her hand and she would start dancing around, and to me, it just really brings me back to the days of being at recess and being creative with your surroundings and what you have. And she just seemed like she was a great little girl with an amazing imagination. Anthony Taylor was age. Nine and he was in fifth grade at Saint Elizabeth set In School, and he had cousins, like I said, who lived in the house and was part of a sleepover that night. He lived with his grandmother in Menlo Park and he had a previously attended Castania School until that year. He is described as the one who always cheered people up, and he loved to play basketball. Kaneita Rivers was twenty two years old. She enjoyed going to clubs and dancing. She loved braiding her friend's hair, and she even would go and braid hair to earn some extra money. And she also enjoyed going camping. She was the daughter of Bonnie Thompson and cousins to Sonia McNatt. Bonnie Thompson was forty years old and she loved to play cards and also had previously had a job working at sears. She was the mother of Kanneita Rivers and the daughter of Vernon McKean and the sister of Alma Campbell. And she is described as quote like a mother to many in the neighborhood. And Bonnie, like I said, was a hero that day, and she tried to save as many people as she could, and she died a hero. And we need to remember that Alma Campbell was aged fifty nine. She was the school librarian at Castana's School. She was the daughter of Verna McKean, a sister to Bonnie Thompson, and she had five children. She lived in Modesto and was just visiting that weekend. She loved children, and her nephew really remembers that she would always take the kids places and would always bring them snacks and was a nice person and very well loved. She's also described as nice, big hearted, and compassionate. So those are the victims, the ones who perish that day. Now we're going to get into those who survived, who came out of the fire with some injuries, but overall they were safe. Verna McKean was seventy eight years old. She was the owner of the home and one of the survivors. She was known as Moms to her friends and family. She was treated at the hospital and then released. Now, like I said earlier, she did have the house rebuilt, but could never go back there and moved to another location in East Palo Alto. Teresa Cotton. She was taken out of the home and was listed in serious condition in the burn ward at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and had second and third degree burns over twenty five to thirty five percent of her body, Predominantly the burns were on her upper body. She passed away a year later from complications from her injuries, bringing the tragedy to ten people. Who lost their lives. The other survivors include Kenneth McKean. He suffered smoke inhalation and burns to fifteen percent of his legs. He ended up being airlifted to Brookside Hospital because that hospital at the time was one of the only ones in the area with a hyperbaric oxygenating chamber that treated smoke inhalation, so he was brought there. He has no memory of the fire and was actually pronounced dead three times, so it's a true miracle that Kenneth survived and he ended up overall spending a month in the hospital. Devin McKean eleven years old. He was in fourth grade at the time of the fire. He was sent to a pediatric ICU at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and was treated for smoke and elation and burns and spent a lot of time in rehab relearning how to walk and talk. He has no memory of the fire, but survived because he hid in a closet and covered himself with bags of clothing. I also did want to take a minute to recognize the injured firefighters who risked their lives to try and save so many of these family members. There were many at the scene that day, but these are the ones who were injured, and these are Menlo Park firefighters who were all treated at Stanford Hospital and released, Mike Cochrane who suffered second degree burns, Dave Carr who suffered second degree burns, Can Steal who suffered second degree burns, and Greg Mays who had a sprained knee. So East Palo Alto really saw a lot of tragedy. In April of nineteen ninety seven, just a week before the fire, there was a twelve year old boy named John Penzioni who was a student at Castano and he died of electrocution after he climbed a high voltage tower on a dare, touched a wire and lost his life. So tragic this happened just a week before the fires. So Castano really struggled in this time. They lost so many of their students in such a short period of time. There has been nothing publicly released that gives us any idea what the motive for this arson might have been, But somebody out there knows something. Somebody had to have seen something, somebody knows something. This was obviously targeted. This family for one reason or another was targeted, and I think this person is a horrific human for targeting a home where so many children lived and stayed. Anyone with information about the Fordum fire is asked to call the San Mateo County Sheriff's Detective Bureau at six' five ozho five ninety nine one five three six or its anonymous tip line at eight hundred five four seven twenty seven. Hundred it's been entirely too long since this tragedy took. Place and this was a fire that was intentionally. Set somebody went up to that home and poured gasoline on vehicles and then took a match or whatever and set fire to these, cars which then spread to the. Home they knew what they were. Doing they did it, Intentionally they, plotted they, planned and they carried it, out and ten people in total lost their, lives and so many others have continued to be affected by. It and think about the survivors of. This there were people that were inside the house that night that morning that made it, out although they had injuries, themselves and they went through a, lot a lot of hospitalizations and all they have to live with this every single day that they survived something that nine people did, not and that has to just weigh on you day in and day, out especially not knowing who is. Responsible if this was a simple fire where it was just a tragic, accident that would be one. Thing but this was intentionally set and this family was intentionally, targeted and there is just something so sinister and evil about that THAT i can't even wrap my head around. It so somebody knows. Something now is a great time to come. Forward with what you. Know loyalties are, changing people are, shifting and now is a really good time to speak your truth and come forward and help these families have a little bit of justice and see somebody held responsible for or this awful. TRAGEDY i just can't even wrap my head around knowing that so many people were inside of that home and that somebody intentionally wanted to take them all, out especially the. Children it just completely boggles my. Mind, so LIKE i, said be sure to check my social. Media i'm going to be posting some of the different news articles that came out about the fire after it happened in nineteen ninety. Seven i'm going to be posting photos of all the. Victims i'm also going to be posting some photos of that twenty year anniversary celebration that they had. In front of the. HOME i think that the surviving family members try to do everything they can to keep the memory of their loved ones, alive AND i think in a situation like, this that's all you can. Do and, again it's just trying to keep the story out. There knowing that these people lost their lives in such a tragic way and that the perpetrator is still out there is a really scary, thought at least for. ME i can't even imagine and what they deal with day to, day but coming, together celebrating their lives and just kind of keeping it on the forefront is so so. Important thank you guys so much for listening to this. EPISODE i will see you next week for a brand new. CASE i hope you have a great weekend AND i will see you. Then. Bye