Police Hunt Suspect in Fiery Deaths of 4 at Fort Bragg Home

A police bulletin was issued Tuesday for a 26-year-old man described as armed and dangerous in the deaths of four people in a house wracked by an explosion and fire.

The deaths were described by Mendocino County sheriff’s investigators as possibly drug-related. Sgt. Rich Wiseman said the case was being investigated as possible arson and homicide.

Law enforcement radio frequencies carried the alert some 15 hours after the charred bodies of the victims were found in the house on the south edge of Fort Bragg, 160 miles north of San Francisco. The bulletin called the man, a coastal resident, a homicide suspect in four deaths.

Autopsies were planned later on the victims, said Wiseman.

Investigators said they suspected a narcotics operation may be implicated in the deaths and that the explosion was in a drug-making laboratory. One of the agencies called in to help with the probe was the county Narcotics Task Force.

Wiseman said the victims were a man and a woman, both apparently in their 30s; a young male in his teens or early 20s, and a female child.

Wisemen said the bodies of the adults were completely burned, and those of the youngsters partially burned. The officer indicated tentative identities were known and being withheld pending notification of relatives.

Residents near the ruined house said the victims had lived at the address only a few weeks but that they left a strong impression on the neighborhood.

“There was always a lot of activity at the house, a lot of cars and people coming and going all the time ... friendly and hippie-ish” said Tracy Anderson. “They always played music and made noise. There were always a lot of men out in the backyard.”

The agencies involved, besides the drug squad, include sheriff’s detectives, the state Department of Justice crime lab, the state Identification Bureau, Mendocino County Arson Investigation Team and the state fire marshal’s office.