April 20, 2025
Candles and Chaos: A Tragic Fire Reveals Neglect
A seemingly ordinary day in an apartment shared by Catherine Schwartz, Tyler Mertlow, and their three children ended in unspeakable tragedy when a fire claimed the life of their three-month-old son. The devastating case unravels like a noir mystery, revealing layers of neglect, substance abuse, and domestic turmoil that created perfect conditions for disaster.
The investigation reveals a household in absolute disarray. Dog waste covered children's mattresses, forcing the family to crowd into a single bedroom where a lit candle sat precariously near the infant's crib. Empty Bacardi bottles and trash littered the apartment, creating a tinderbox waiting for a spark. When Katie stepped out to visit a vape shop, Tyler—with a blood alcohol content later measured at a staggering 0.262—was left in charge of three young children.
"The candle just blew up the house," one of the surviving children would later tell investigators, adding the heartbreaking detail that when she asked her father for help, he was drunk and "did nothing." The timeline reconstructed by detectives shows that within just 13 minutes of Katie's departure, the fire had already begun.
What makes this case particularly troubling is that the Department of Child Services had removed the children just 16 months earlier due to domestic violence concerns, returning them only five months before the fatal fire. The infant who perished was born just weeks after the older children came home, raising serious questions about whether proper safety assessments had been conducted.
Digital forensic evidence uncovered during the investigation painted an even more disturbing picture—videos and photos showing the parents engaging in explicit sexual acts in the presence of their young children in the months leading up to the tragedy. Even more shockingly, jail calls recorded after the infant's death and Tyler's arrest revealed the couple continuing their inappropriate behavior, showing a profound lack of remorse or accountability.
This case forces us to confront uncomfortable truths about parental responsibility, the effectiveness of child protective services, and how quickly neglect can turn deadly. The legal proceedings continue with both parents facing multiple felony charges, including neglect resulting in death.
Have you witnessed warning signs of child neglect in your community? Understanding when and how to report concerns could save a life. Share your thoughts with us or reach out if you need resources on recognizing and reporting suspected child abuse or neglect.
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Disclaimer: All defendants are INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY in a court of law. All facts are alleged until a conviction!
00:36 - Introducing the Tragic Case
03:45 - Katie's Account of the Fire
10:55 - Timeline and State of the Apartment
18:13 - The Child's Testimony
27:54 - Disturbing Digital Evidence
41:31 - Legal Consequences and Ongoing Cases
WEBVTT
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Welcome to 69 South, where we cuss and discuss true crime, current events and hot topics, along with our state of society today.
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Welcome to 69 South.
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Sit back, relax and enjoy Developing.
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Now a three-month-old infant is dead after an apartment fire in Martinsville.
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This is according to the Morgan County Coroner's Office.
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The 911 calls started coming in around three o'clock this afternoon for a fire on South Home Avenue.
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Took firefighters about an hour to get that fire under control.
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The cause is still under investigation.
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Sadly, all we know at this time is that infant died in the fire.
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Unclear if anyone else was injured.
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Stay with us as more information becomes available on this tragic situation there in Martinsville.
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Welcome back everybody to 69 South.
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I'm your host Chop, and with me always is my beautiful co-host Julie.
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Good evening everyone.
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Tonight, we are diving deep into the cases that leave us with more questions than answers, and today we're going to be covering a heartbreaking and complex case involving Catherine Schwartz and her husband Tyler Mertlow.
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This was also last week's True Crime Challenge.
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We had so many people guess and search really hard to try to figure this out.
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A few faltered but we did have a few prevail.
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Our first winner of the free t-shirt was Nikita Weaver, and then we had a group of amazing women working together and they are our true crime queens.
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Y'all know who we are.
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We appreciate y'all so much.
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Then we have Rolanda Moore, sunny Beach, brianna Woodford and Lisa Simmons.
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That came through with the correct answer.
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If I missed you, please forgive me and let me know and I'll shout you out on the next episode.
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Also next month, we are doing our true crime treasure hunt through Martinsville with the Big Fat Cash Prize winner.
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Now let's get into this tragedy the Big Fat Cash.
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Prize winner.
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Now let's get into this tragedy.
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On a seemingly normal day, a fire broke out in the couple's apartment, leading to a devastating loss and a tangled web of allegations, neglect and domestic turmoil.
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We're going to break down what happened using investigation notes from Katie and Tyler's probable cause affidavit, and then we're going to explore the events that led up to this tragedy.
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Now our story begins with Detective Williams and Anderson, who sat down with Katherine Schwartz, known as Katie, to get her account of the day of the fire.
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Katie's first concern was her baby.
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She immediately asked if the baby was okay.
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The detectives informed her that the baby was still alive and out the hospital being treated.
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Now this baby, as we'll learn, will become the central figure in this heartbreaking case.
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According to Katie, Tyler, the baby's father, and her husband didn't live at the apartment full-time.
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He would stay over on the weekends, which eventually turned into weeks at a time after he had lost his job.
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Katie told the detectives that she and Tyler had a volatile relationship marked by domestic violence.
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In fact, the Department of Child Services, better known as DCS, had removed her children in June of 2022 due to this violence.
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She only got them back in October of 2023.
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Now, that was just five months before this incident.
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That's a short window to rebuild a stable home for the kids, and it seemed like the cracks in her relationship with Tyler were still very much present.
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However, further investigation revealed that Tyler had actually been living back in the home for approximately six months Now.
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That's suggesting that he was more of a constant presence than Katie initially let on.
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Now let's get into the Katie's account of the day of the fire.
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She said that it started out as a normal day.
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Katie woke up at 11 am that morning to make the girls breakfast, which is a bit late, but she seemed to frame it as routine.
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After breakfast she went and laid back down, but shortly after 1 pm her two daughters were still sleeping and they took a nap.
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So they woke up shortly, ate breakfast and then they went back to bed.
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But then when they go back to bed, supposedly this is where things get murky now 2 38 pm.
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Katie left her kids in the apartment with tyler.
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She told them she'd be right back, heading out to the vape shop, but when she returned, chaos had erupted she came out of the vape shop and headed to the corner where she was met by police and fire trucks.
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Her apartment looked like it was on fire.
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You could see smoke rolling.
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I don't know if you could necessarily see flames, but it was bad.
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When she got back, they asked her how many kids she had, and she told them that she had three kids.
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I believe that the fire department in the news reports at that point in time said that basically the fire was just contained to where?
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the infant was yeah, but then Tyler dropped a bombshell.
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He told authorities that the baby was still inside the house.
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Now let that sink in for a minute.
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There's a fire raging and the baby is still inside.
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During the interview, katie had revealed that she had seen DCS coming to intervene again, likely to remove her kids, and this wasn't the first time.
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As I mentioned earlier, dcs had taken her children in June of 2022.
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Katie told the detectives that she had just gotten her kids back in October of 2023 after being separated from them for 16 months.
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That's a long time for little bitty kids to be separated from their parents.
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Now you have got to be kidding me.
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I can almost guarantee you that she was still being supervised by DCS if she had just got her kids back.
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They don't just give your children back and disappear.
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They're supposed to have a safety plan in place before the children even return home and then they follow up weekly, monthly et cetera.
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They don't just throw your kids back into your care Now that she'd only had her kids back for five months.
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And I'm sure they I would hope that they run her through the ringer like we hear all the other stories that DCS runs you through the ringer.
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You know, class after class after class, urine screens after urine screen making sure the home is good, everything is, you know, up to par to have children in there.
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But what's interesting here is how Katie describes her relationship with Tyler.
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She initially painted a picture of a man who was in and out of her life, but the detective suspected, and later confirmed, that he was more present than she let on.
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And then there's the question of what happened when she left the apartment.
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Katie said that when she left Tyler was in the restroom and he knew that she was leaving.
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She told the kids she'd be right back, but she didn't come right back and in that time a fire broke out, with her children still inside.
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The detectives also pressed Katie on her and Tyler's state of mind that day.
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They asked if she had any alcoholic beverages or illegal drugs.
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At first she said no, but then she amended her statement, admitting yeah, I smoked a bong load this morning, about a gram.
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She quickly clarified that tyler doesn't smoke or do illegal drugs and she claimed that she didn't either.
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But, as she put it, he wasn't supposed to be drinking or doing anything like that.
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Now that admission raises a lot of questions about her state of mind that day and whether her actions or inactions played a role in what happened.
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But I wonder what about Tyler?
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The detectives asked Katie if she'd seen Tyler drink any alcohol.
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That day.
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She said she hadn't.
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Then they asked if Tyler had been drinking the night before.
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And here's where it gets a little bit interesting.
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Katie asked if she could plead the fifth little bit interesting.
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Katie asked if she could plead the fifth.
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Pleading the fifth means that you don't want to say any information as it could be harmful to yourself.
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Is what the fifth means.
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Or your spouse Right.
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Now, that's a pretty telling moment.
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Pleading the fifth means that she didn't want to answer, possibly because her response could incriminate her or Tyler.
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It leaves us wondering what was both of their state of minds that night, and how might it have impacted what happened the next day.
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The detectives then shifted gears to get a clearer picture of the scene before the fire.
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They asked Katie where the children were in the apartment.
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She explained that the baby was in the crib or bassinet and her two girls were in the bedroom on the bed.
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Crib or bassinet, and her two girls were in the bedroom on the bed.
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Katie went on to say that all the kids currently share a bedroom with the adults in the apartment.
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Why?
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Because, according to Katie, the dogs had been using the other bedroom and she hadn't been in there to clean it up.
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She didn't want the kids getting into that mess, so they were sleeping in one room together.
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Now let's think about that for a second.
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The apartment has multiple bedrooms, but the kids are all crammed into one because the other room is being used by the dogs and it's too messy for the kids to be in there.
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That detail paints a picture of the living conditions in the apartment for me, and it's not a pretty one.
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It also raises questions about how safe and stable the environment was for the children, especially with a history of DCS involvement in domestic violence.
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Now, at some point during the interview, katie and the detectives took a break.
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During this break, katie decided that she needed to make a phone call, so she called someone named Leanna.
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In that call, katie told Leanna that she was probably going to be arrested for neglect.
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This is a significant moment, because Katie seems to understand the gravity of this situation and the potential consequences that she's facing.
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And it's not hard to see why she might think that Katie went on to tell the detectives that the house was a mess.
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So much of a mess, meaning DCS would probably find a reason to take the kids again.
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She also mentioned that there was a half a pound of weed in the apartment.
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A half pound, I mean, that's a little bit more than just a little bit of a personal smoking quantity.
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You know what I mean.
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Well, actually she didn't tell the police that she had a half pound of weed in her apartment.
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Whenever she called her friend Leanne from the interview room, she was like, yeah, I'm probably getting arrested and I got a half pound burned up in my apartment too.
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But she didn't know her baby had passed away yet at the time of this phone call.
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So I wonder if she was talking to her friend on the phone in the interview room and you know, like you watch first 48 and shit, they still got the cameras on or maybe a two way mirror type thing, you know what I mean and she's in there going.
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Oh yeah, we got a half pound of weed in the fucking in the apartment closet.
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Yeah, and a half pound of weed.
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I'm pretty sure that that could be intent to distribute not just a simple possession charge.
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Oh yeah, and with children in the home, that's a massive red flag for neglect and endangerment.
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Now Katie also revealed during the interview that Tyler was being arrested.
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At the time the detectives didn't have the full wherewithal of everything that was about to be undone, but then they were sitting there waiting and katie gets a phone call from her mom.
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Now she's using her phone and tyler's mutual cell phone it.
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It's a red iPhone that was later seized by authorities.
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Katie learned that the baby had passed away.
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That news must have been absolutely shattering.
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The baby, who had been alive in the hospital when the interview began, was now gone?
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How old was the infant that had passed away?
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From the obituary I seen was three and a half months old.
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So she had got the other two children back just five months before that.
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And then had another baby.
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So she had gotten pregnant while the other kids were in DCS custody?
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Yes, and had another baby just a short time, two months after she got her other children back.
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Actually, I think it was weeks.
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She got her kids back in October of 2023.
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She had the baby in November, in the middle of November I think of the next month.
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Wow, that's a hard pill to swallow.
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Right there, the fire that broke out while Katie was at the vape shop.
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It didn't just destroy her apartment, it took the life of that baby and the circumstances surrounding that fire are deeply troubling.
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The apartment was in disarray, with a large quantity of drugs present.
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The children were sleeping in a single bedroom because the other room was too dirty, nasty or covered in dog shit to use.
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Katie has used drugs that morning and she was hesitant to answer questions about Tyler's drinking the night before.
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Now, as the investigation deepened, the detectives took steps to verify Katie's account of her movements.
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That day, detective Williams retraced Katie's steps, starting from the front door of the apartment to the vape shop.
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He confirmed that it took eight minutes to walk to the vape shop, which aligns with Katie's claim that she left at 2.38 pm.
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Video footage from the store showed Katie inside for eight minutes and the records indicated that she spent $50 on a glass piece, likely a smoking accessory, given her early admission of drug use.
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Now, from the time she left the vape shop to the time she came back was 18 minutes.
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Well, time sure has changed.
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I remember when you could get a little glass pipe from the gas station for like six bucks to smoke some pot in.
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I mean you could see him sitting there from the Indian gas station.
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I wonder if it was like a great big old water bong or something, who knows.
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But breaking that timeline down, so she left the apartment at 2.38.
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So it took her eight minutes to walk to the vape shop.
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That means she arrived about 2.46 pm.
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If she spent eight minutes inside, you know, shopping, that meant she left the shop around 2.54 pm.
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Then, just over a minute later, around 2.55 pm, she was back at the corner where the fire was already raging.
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That's a pretty tight window.
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I mean that's less than 20 minutes from the time she left the apartment to when she returned to find the home up in flames.
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It raises a pretty big question what happened in that short span of time to cause such a catastrophic fire?
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Now, the investigation didn't stop there.
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Authorities obtained a search warrant for the apartment, along with a blood draw from Katie and Tyler, likely to test for drugs or alcohol in their system, giving her earlier admission of smoking a bong load that morning.
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Meanwhile, another detective, Sparrow, was canvassing the area for possible witnesses.
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Sparrow came across A witness in the parking lot of the apartment complex who provided some chilling details about what had happened in the hours leading up to the fire.
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This witness, who lived in the area, told Detective Sparrow that he had surveillance footage of the apartment complex.
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According to this witness, they pulled up the security system and reviewed the footage from that day, which revealed a disturbing scene.
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Around 3 am the previous night the witness was woken up by the sounds of Katie and Tyler arguing and fighting.
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The witness could hear Katie yelling you pushed me down the steps, followed by loud banging that startled the witness awake.
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Now further analysis of the surveillance footage provided even more context.
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At 1 45 am, the footage captured katie throwing a bottle at an expedition, likely referring to a vehicle, possibly tyler's vehicle, and then, two minutes later, at 10 at 1 47 am, katie and tyler are seen talking on the porch smoking.
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This adds another layer to the early morning conflict, showing that the titian wasn't just a one-off incident.
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It was ongoing, with physical aggression and heated interactions continuing for hours.
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Then, as we already know, at 2.38 am, katie left for the vape shop and shortly thereafter the fire broke out.
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The witness also saw Tyler and Katie come in and out of the apartment with Bacardi bottles and they noted that there was trash everywhere.
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This aligns with Katie's own admission about the messy state of the apartment, where the kids were sleeping in one room because the other one was too dirty to use.
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But the witnesses' accounts adds a new layer of tension a fight at 3 am, just hours before the fire, involving yelling, physical aggression and throwing objects.
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It kind of paints a picture of a volatile situation that was spiraling out of control long before the fire broke out.
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Additional witness statements brings us closer to the moment that the fire broke out.
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At 2.51 pm, just 13 minutes after Katie left for the vape shop.
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At 2.38, the witness's camera captured kids coming out of the front door of the apartment.
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The witness then said they could smell smoke and it smelled like burning trash.
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Now these video clips, which were recorded or in 10-second intervals, provide a critical snapshot of the fire's early moments.
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Just minutes after Katie had left, the fire was already started and underway, With smoke noticeable enough for the neighbors to smell it.
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Another witness statement gives us an even more insight to what happened next.
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This witness saw Tyler go to a neighbor's door, looking like he had just woken up, asking for a fire extinguisher.
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The footage shows that Tyler tried to go back into the apartment to fight the fire, but he couldn't, and then 911 was called.
00:18:20.994 --> 00:18:23.448
This detail is significant.
00:18:23.448 --> 00:18:33.555
It suggests that Tyler may not have been fully aware of the fire until it was already spreading, and his attempt to go back in shows effort to respond, but it was too late.
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The fire was already out of control and the children were in grave danger.
00:18:37.002 --> 00:18:38.585
The fire was already out of control and the children were in grave danger.
00:18:38.605 --> 00:18:45.132
Another witness speaking about earlier that day, at 1230 pm, confirmed the ongoing tension in the household.
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They stated that Katie and Tyler were fighting really bad.
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This witness emphasized that the fighting between Katie and Tyler was constant and dramatic, in a pattern that aligns with what we've already heard about their volatile relationship.
00:18:59.580 --> 00:19:02.510
The investigation also extended to the surviving children.
00:19:02.510 --> 00:19:18.541
Dcs had transported the children after the fire and another detective went into an interview at Susie's place to observe a forensic interview of one of the children Now, during this interview, the child stated that she was now at her mom's house and that she lives with her brother.
00:19:18.541 --> 00:19:20.903
In an interview, the child stated that she was now at her mom's house and that she lives with her brother.
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But the child's account also provided a chilling glimpse into the moments of the fire and possibly a cause.
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The child said that the baby got hurt in the fire while she was playing with toys.
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Then, as she put it, the candle just blew up the house.
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The candle, she said, was upstairs.
00:19:38.261 --> 00:19:43.625
She recounted seeing fire in the house and asking Daddy to help her, but Daddy did nothing.
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According to the child, the candle was on the table next to the TV and Mom wasn't home.
00:19:51.246 --> 00:19:55.431
She was at the store buying supplies, meaning candy.
00:19:55.431 --> 00:20:00.193
Tyler, however, was in the house but doing nothing.
00:20:00.193 --> 00:20:05.307
When asked what nothing meant, the child replied that tyler was drunk.
00:20:05.928 --> 00:20:25.777
She explained that tyler was drinking alcohol and she knew this because the baby was upstairs in his crib when the fire happened so there was a lit candle on a table near the tv in the cluttered apartment full of trash and Bacardi bottles, and Bacardi I know from times back gone is flammable.
00:20:25.777 --> 00:20:26.619
You know what I'm saying.
00:20:26.619 --> 00:20:28.768
You could light a shot of Bacardi on fire.
00:20:28.768 --> 00:20:32.676
So maybe that's what she meant when she said it kind of exploded the apartment.
00:20:32.676 --> 00:20:37.534
Yeah, and with the baby's crib nearby, it's a recipe for disaster.
00:20:37.534 --> 00:20:45.580
The child's statement that the candle blew up the house likely means it was ignited by something nearby, causing the fire to spread rapidly.
00:20:45.580 --> 00:20:51.941
Her accusation that Tyler did nothing and he was drunk adds a layer of negligence to the story.
00:20:51.941 --> 00:21:03.733
It also aligns with the witnesses who saw Tyler looking like he had just woken up when he asked for a fire extinguisher, suggesting he may have been a little impaired or too impaired to respond effectively.
00:21:04.300 --> 00:21:10.134
Now in other interviews, Tyler provided his own version of a bench, which raises more questions.
00:21:10.134 --> 00:21:27.113
He claimed he lives with his mom, he woke up at 9 am that day to go get a soda pop a polar pop from the polar pop shop, and that katie was home with the kids and he returned 10 minutes later.
00:21:27.113 --> 00:21:32.329
After that, tyler said he laid down to take a nap and he went to sleep.
00:21:32.329 --> 00:21:49.869
He was in his bed in the bedroom where the kids were all using.
00:21:49.869 --> 00:21:53.832
The baby was in the bassinet and the two girls were on the bed.
00:21:53.872 --> 00:21:57.074
Now that account conflicts with Katie's in several ways.
00:21:57.074 --> 00:22:08.532
In a later interview Katie stated that when she left the baby was asleep along with one daughter, but then she corrected herself saying that they were awake, eating a snack in bed and watching a movie.
00:22:08.532 --> 00:22:14.680
Catherine initially said that when she left Tyler was at the top of the stairs or in the bathroom.
00:22:14.680 --> 00:22:18.249
I wonder who's telling the truth that part, because it can't be both.
00:22:18.249 --> 00:22:31.029
Katie confirmed to the detective that Tyler was physically up and not sleeping, but the detective then told her he learned of a candle and asked if it would have been nearby the baby's crib.
00:22:31.029 --> 00:22:37.567
Catherine said the dog had diarrhea and shit on both the girls' mattresses and the room smelled like shit.
00:22:37.567 --> 00:22:46.769
Which is why the kids were all in one room in the first place is because they were letting the dogs shit wherever it pleased, but she didn't directly address the candle at that time.
00:22:47.340 --> 00:22:57.432
So the reason all these people are sleeping in one room in this two-bedroom apartment is because they're letting the dogs shit in the other room, which should be for the kids.
00:22:57.432 --> 00:22:58.986
That's so neglectful.
00:22:58.986 --> 00:23:07.791
These kids need their own little space, their own little safe beds, and then they let the dogs in their room to shit all over the girls' mattresses on the floor.
00:23:07.791 --> 00:23:09.226
That's disgusting.
00:23:09.226 --> 00:23:13.250
There's no excuse for that at all to let a dog shit all over your house.
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