3 Grandchildren of Ex-Congressmen Die in Fire

Three grandchildren of former U.S. Reps. Bob Mathias of California and Bill Alexander of Arkansas were killed, along with their father, in a house fire, Mathias said Wednesday.

Authorities were investigating whether the children’s father set the Tuesday fire, which engulfed the two-story home by the time firefighters arrived, sheriff’s Cmdr. Mark Anderson said.

The bodies of Timothy Halstead, 33, and children Haven Halstead, 8, Jordan Halstead, 5, and Elijah Murray Halstead, 4, were found in the rubble, Mathias said.

“They are my sweet grandchildren and I love them very much,” Mathias said from his Fresno home.

Halstead’s estranged wife, Alyse, 31, said she had dropped off the children at the home 120 miles east of San Francisco in the Sierra foothills a few hours before the fire.

Anderson said that the identities have not been confirmed but that he believed the bodies to be those of Halstead and the children.

Mathias is married to Alyse Halstead’s mother, Gwen, and is the children’s stepgrandfather. Gwen Mathias was previously married to Alexander, Alyse Halstead’s father and the children’s grandfather.

Mathias, 68, was a two-time Olympic decathlon winner who represented a Central Valley district as a Republican from 1966-74. Alexander, a longtime Arkansas Democrat, was defeated in 1992.