Photo by:(SLCSO)
Authorities on the Treasure Coast are releasing new details about what caused a deadly house fire near Fort Pierce.
Once labeled as suspicious, the person they say is responsible for the fire is no stranger to the address.
The house at 6304 East Seminole Road near Fort Pierce was gutted by fire just two days after the Fourth of July.
Some of the walls were destroyed, there’s a huge gaping hole in the roof, and there’s not much left other than a pile of charred debris.
Sheriff’s detectives have now determined what happened.
“Based upon our investigation along with the fire department, we don’t believe that there was any indication of foul play and the death appears to be a suicide,” said Richard Del Toro, St. Lucie County Sheriff.
Flames swept through this house at about 10:15 in the morning on July 6th.
Over a week later, the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office says they’ve pieced together what happened.
They say the man who lived there, Michael Chalmers, 71, was upset that the woman he was living with, who owned the house, was ending their relationship.
So Chalmers set the house on fire.
“That relationship was ending, and this was his way of basically, I don’t want to say getting back, but not agreeing with how the relationship was ending and basically took matters into his own hands,” Sheriff Del Toro said.
The Sheriff says it appears that morning, Chalmers drove away with the dog that belonged to the owner of the house, left the dog in the vehicle with the A/C running and walked home.
“I think what happened was he removed the dog in the vehicle down the road, came back to the house, started the fire while he was inside the residence and then took his own life,” Sheriff Del Toro explained.
Chalmers’ body was found in the back patio of the house.
“We were looking at it from an arson case from the beginning just because when we got there and started talkin’ to the girlfriend and them having some problems, that this could’ve been like some sort of like I’m gonna burn your house down as a kind of a you know, a goodbye type deal,” Sheriff Del Toro said.
The woman who was ending her relationship with Chalmers was not there during the fire.
“Based on the autopsy with the Medical Examiner’s Office and the fact that there was a self-inflicted gunshot wound with a partially-melted firearm underneath his body, led us to the fact that this was a suicide,” the Sheriff said.
The sheriff says the dog is okay, and the dog has been returned to the woman who owns the house.
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Source: cbs12
