A Missouri community college teacher set the fire that killed her and her four children earlier this week.
St. Louis County Police said Bernadine “Birdie” Pruessner, 39, allegedly set a mattress on fire in her Ferguson home and left a note in her minivan saying she intended to kill herself and the children. the St. Louis Post Dispatch reported.
She and the children — 9-year-old twins Ellie and Ivy Pruessner, 6-year-old Jackson Spader, and 2-year-old Millie Spader — were found dead Monday after the house went up in flames at about 4 a.m.
Pruessner’s family blamed the fathers of the children — her ex-husband David Pruessner and ex-boyfriend Jared Spader — and what they called “spurious litigation and unfounded allegations” that pushed Pruessner into “an awful place, one that resulted in tragic consequences,” according to a statement posted to a GoFundMe.
Just hours before the deadly fire, Pruessner — who was an assistant professor at Lewis & Clark Community College and was named Missouri Teacher of the Year Award in 2013 by the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence — posted on Facebook that her children were “peacefully sleeping in my bed.”
“Curled up together. Knowing they are loved so fiercely that I’d do absolutely anything for them. My favorite moment.” she wrote.
Hours before that, she wrote about “making today one of those live each day like it’s your last kind of days!”
Court documents show that Pruessner was battling with David Preuesner, the twins’ father, and Spader, the father of the other two children, over multiple custody issues. The latest was her planned move to Creve Couer, which would have brought her closer to the twins’ school and both fathers, her lawyer, Nathan Cohen, told the Post-Dispatch.
But the two men objected to the move, Cohen said, adding that Spader’s objections came despite his lack of custody of the children. Cohen said they were primarily concerned with the access Birdie Pruessner’s family would have to the house and children. A judge eventually ruled in favor of the mother, but David Pruessner was taking his objections to court, and a trial was to start in March.
“I’ve been a practicing lawyer in domestic relations for 36 years,” he said. “And this was probably one of the worst. The ex-husband and the father of her other two children have lots of access to money and resources, and used every penny of it to make life miserable for her.”
The Post-Dispatch could not reach David Pruessner for comment. Spader left a statement saying Millie and Jackson “are the greatest gift that a father could ever ask for.”
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[Featured image: Birdie Pruessner and children/Facebook]
