Police Still Believe Deadly Fire Was Murder-Suicide

Police on Tuesday said they are nearly certain that the arson fire that killed two adults and two children in their Canyon Country apartment last week was a murder-suicide, triggered by a domestic dispute.

An autopsy completed Monday found that the woman and two children had died of smoke inhalation and thermal burns, said coroner’s spokesman Scott Carrier. Their deaths were ruled homicides.

The cause of death of a man also found in the house, who had high levels of carbon monoxide in his system, is still under investigation, Carrier said.

The man, believed to be the husband and father, may have set the blaze with gasoline, said Det. Gil Carrillo, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Carrillo said he is awaiting dental records to confirm the identities of the dead. He suspects the man was despondent over a pending separation from his wife and children.

“I think it will be what we’ve seen--tragically--too much lately where the one parent takes the lives of the family,” Carrillo said.

The fire was discovered shortly after midnight Friday by patrolling sheriff’s deputies who saw smoke.

The small, two-bedroom apartment was left a blackened shell.

Arson investigators found signs of a flammable liquid--smelling like gasoline--near the back bedroom where the four bodies were found.

Neighbors said the couple were having marital problems and the woman was planning to move away with the children.

Three weeks before the fire, a 33-year-old man was taken from the apartment for a psychiatric evaluation after deputies were called to the Manzanita Lane complex. Carrillo said the man was making threats against himself and his family.

A neighbor last week gave deputies a note that Carrillo said referred to the man’s troubles with his wife.