Three child deaths in Trigg County house fire declared homicide by state police
By the Associated Press
ROARING SPRING, Ky. (AP) - The deaths of two teenage girls and their younger brother, discovered after authorities responded to a house fire in rural Kentucky, were homicides, police said Friday.
State police spokesman Dean Patterson identified the victims as Kayla Williams, 17, Kortney Frensley, 14, and Ethan Frensley, 5. A fourth person at the home was injured in the fire but has not been identified.
Patterson declined to say whether investigators have any suspects.
“We're following every lead we have,” he said.
Kentucky State Police on Friday asked military police at the nearby Fort Campbell Army post to help collect evidence from the scene, Patterson said in a news release. The state fire marshal's office and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are also working on the investigation, which is expected to continue Saturday, the news release said.
Police and firefighters responded Wednesday night to the home in Roaring Spring, near the sprawling military post on the Tennessee border.
Williams' father, Doug Williams of Atwater, Calif., said Friday he was “angered” after learning of her death from the Trigg County coroner Thursday.
“To think that somebody went in there and did what they did to all three of those kids ...,” Williams said Friday as he traveled to Kentucky. “They're just an absolute monster and I hope they find them.”
He said Kayla had recently returned to live with her mother after moving in with him, but had talked to him about returning to California for college.
“My daughter was exactly like every other teenage girl, her biggest thing in life was wanting to get her license,” Williams said. “She was a girl that could walk in the room and everyone in there would think she was an absolute angel in minutes.”
Williams said he and Kayla's mother, Kristy Frensley, divorced shortly after Kayla was born.
Kayla Williams and Ethan Frensley lived in the home with their mother, according to court documents in a divorce and custody case involving Ethan.
Kristy Frensley's divorce from Ethan's father, Jeffrey Frensley, was final in February.
Phone messages left with and an e-mail sent to Kristy Frensley's attorney, Julia Crenshaw of Hopkinsville, were not immediately returned Friday.
Maj. April Olson, a spokeswoman for Fort Campbell, where Jeffrey Frensley is a master sergeant in the Army, said he was “not interested in speaking right now.”
The divorcing couple had agreed to shared custody of Ethan, but in July, Jeffrey Frensley sought to take full custody, accusing Kristy Frensley in court documents of drinking around the child, keeping a filthy house and failing to regularly take the boy to the doctor.
Many of the allegations brought by the father were unsupported, the judge said. Court-ordered tests showed that Kristy Frensley wasn't using illicit drugs, according to documents in the case.
Trigg Circuit Judge C.A. Woodall III declined to alter the custody agreement between the Frensleys in an Oct. 1 ruling. He found that Kristy Frensley did not endanger Ethan and did not have a substance abuse problem.
Kristy Frensley was arrested Oct. 9 and charged with alcohol intoxication after a Trigg County sheriff's deputy noticed she was acting peculiar at a beauty pageant at Trigg County High School, according to a police citation. The case is still pending.
Thad Ridner, 14, a fellow student of Kortney Frensley at Trigg County High School, said she could often be seen eating Pop-Tarts as she walked down the hall.
“She was nice,” Ridner said. “She never really made anybody mad. She always had a smile on her face and that made other people smile.”
Classes in Trigg County went on as normal Friday even though Superintendent Tim McGinnis said he considered closing county schools.
“I've found through my personal experience, if you can stay in a routine that's a good thing,” he said. “We're having a good day.”
He said grief counselors have been made available to students.
Around the county, residents said the deaths have shaken the area.
“It's very scary,” said Lori Underhill, 40, a teller at Heritage Bank, who said she was acquainted with Kristy Frensley from a local hair salon. “We used to didn't lock the doors until bedtime. But now, we lock them right away.”
Bryce Rogers, 16, another Trigg County High School student, agreed.
“This is crazy,” he said. “Stuff like this just doesn't go on here.”
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Associated Press Writers Dylan T. Lovan, Rebecca Yonker and Malcolm C. Knox contributed to this report from Louisville, Ky.
Story created Oct 18, 2008 - 01:51:09 EDT.
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