Inset: Braydon Blake. Background: Home in the 3800 block of East Anderson Road near Bloomington, Indiana, that Blake allegedly set on fire (WXIN).
Cops in Indiana arrested a man after he allegedly set his house on fire, killing his 74-year-old grandmother, her live-in caregiver and a third woman who was bedridden with cerebral palsy.
Braydon Blake stands accused of murder and arson. According to the Monroe County Sheriff”s Office, the 911 dispatch center received several 911 calls shortly after 2:30 a.m. Jan. 18 about a fire with people trapped inside in the 3800 block of East Anderson Road near Bloomington. The home was on fire when crews arrived. They also noticed a car crashed into the garage.
Deputies found an 18-year-old woman who had escaped the home suffering from severe burns. Another person also escaped the home. Both were taken to the hospital, where one of them died several weeks later, the Bloomington Herald-Times reported. She was identified as 53-year-old Paula Anderson. Fire crews went inside the home and found two other women dead: 74-year-old Mary Blake and 33-year-old Kristine Rowan, who was Anderson’s daughter.
Roughly an hour later, police located Braydon Blake, whom witnesses identified as the alleged arsonist, in a wooded area on the property. He was also suffering from severe burns and was taken to a hospital.
According to a press release posted by local Fox affiliate WXIN anchor Angela Ganote, Monroe County deputies stood guard over Blake at Eskenazi Hospital for about a month until they could no longer do so. The hospital agreed to alert deputies when Blake was released. But the hospital discharged Blake on April 1 without letting deputies know, according to the sheriff’s office.
Deputies learned on Thursday that Blake was free. With the help of the Indiana State Police and U.S. Marshals, deputies arrested Blake in Avon on Friday.
WXIN reported that Rowan, Anderson’s daughter, was bedridden. Mary Blake was suffering from cancer. The outlet also reported that the motive for the fire may have been a rape allegation against the defendant.
Blake remains in the Monroe County Jail without bond.
According to a GoFundMe account description by Anderson’s sister, Rowan suffered from cerebral palsy. Her 18-year-old sister also suffered serious burns in the fire.
“The fire, set by a member of the older woman’s family, took the lives of his own grandmother and my 33-year-old niece Kristine, who had lived with cerebral palsy and was bedridden,” Lindsey Pesonen wrote. “In a matter of moments, we lost our family member, and everything they owned was reduced to ashes.”
