WOMAN FOUND DEAD IN HOUSE FIRE; MAJOR CASE SQUAD WILL INVESTIGATE

A woman was found dead in a house that caught fire at 175 Paiute Lane off Route W north of Cape Girardeau Monday, and the Bollinger-Cape Girardeau County Major Case Squad was activated to investigate.

Teen-ager Joshua Wolf, who lived at the house, escaped the fire. He was treated at an area hospital for smoke inhalation and released.

Authorities had not identified the woman by late Monday. They said the house is believed to belong to William Lindley.

Sheriff John Jordan said the Major Case Squad was activated because "there were some things that could be suspicious, so we are taking precautions."

An autopsy will be performed today, said Cape Girardeau County Coroner John Carpenter. The autopsy should help provide some answers, said the sheriff.

"Somebody knows who this is, but we don't yet," said sheriff's Lt. David James.

Without any identifying information, authorities said they could not notify next of kin. It took several hours for them just to properly identify Wolf.

There wasn't a name posted on the mailbox of the house. The fire was reported at 3:16 p.m. by a call placed from the house to 911. The morning's newspaper still lay where it had been tossed in the driveway.

The family that occupied the house had moved into the home within the past two weeks. A Dodge Durango with Ohio license plates was parked in the driveway before firefighters moved it into the yard so that fire trucks and emergency crews could get closer to the house.

James said evidence at the scene led investigators to activate the Major Case Squad, but he would not say specifically what evidence there was.

There are "thousands of questions," James said. Activating the Major Case Squad helps provide the manpower needed to ask all those questions.

Jordan said: "We are still right at the forefront of the investigation. We aren't saying that it is a homicide, but we are treating it as a homicide."

The Major Case Squad will remain active for 72 hours or longer if needed, Jordan said. The squad includes deputies from Bollinger and Cape Girardeau counties, officers from the Missouri Highway Patrol, Cape Girardeau and Jackson police, the Department of Public Safety at Southeast Missouri State University and the Cape Girardeau County prosecuting attorney.

Firefighters from the East County District responded to the call. The initial call said a house was on fire and a woman was trapped in the basement.

Neighbors driving by saw smoke and also phoned 911.

Jim Wills, who lives across the street, said he saw smoke coming out of the house but didn't see any flames. When he arrived at the scene, the boy was stumbling out of the house, he said.

"I wanted to make sure that his mother wasn't in there," Wills said. "He said she wasn't in the house, that she was at work."

Neighbors from farther down the lane and across the way came walking up the blacktop road to look at the house. Other than some broken windows on the second story, there were no signs of a fire like melted siding or charred wood. The house remained intact, with two hanging flower baskets on the wraparound porch and a riding lawn mower parked off to the side.

One teen-age boy at the scene wouldn't talk to reporters but walked around the perimeter of the police tape. He told sheriff's deputies that he was a friend of Wolf's.

The fire was fairly well contained and extinguished within six minutes by volunteer crews from East County Fire District, said Chief Jim Hanks.

The body was found in the living room upstairs, he said. "We have no idea how the fire started," said Hanks.

A state fire marshal was called to the scene to help with the investigation.