A meth lab fire in Franklin, Ohio took the lives of three people; who were found in the early morning hours of June 2nd among the charred rubble of a home once located at on 9135 Deardoff Road. The identities of the victims are still unknown due to the condition of their bodies, although one is believed to be thirty-eight-year-old Ray Broughton; who had rented the home from Ralph Parker for the last year and a half. His brother has reported him as missing. Parker described Broughton as a nice person who he didn’t think would be involved with meth manufacturing but he says “But you don’t know, because people can fool you.” (qtd in Richter)
Franklin police report that they knew of no drug problems at the house, but say they received a stolen medication complaint from the house in January. John Burke, Commander of the Warren County Drug Task Force says his agency had some information that the home was being used as a meth lab, there was no active investigation of the home.
News reports about the incident indicate the blast occurred somewhere between 3 and 4 a.m., which is not unusual for those who manufacture meth. Cooking meth in the early morning hours is usually done to avoid raising suspicions among neighbors who might smell the fumes coming from the lab. Meth cooks know that few people are awake at that time of the morning. Although, when the meth lab exploded on Deardorf Road, some neighbors heard the blast but attributed it to the sound of thunder and went back to sleep.
Just before 4 a.m. firefighters say they received a report about a “field fire”, although when they arrived at the scene they found a home fully engulfed in flames. Firefighters described the fire as intense; so intense that the house had already been leveled by the fire by the time they arrived twenty minutes after receiving the call. Fifteen hours later their suspicions proved true. Johnathan Westendorf, Chief of the Franklin Fire Department found evidence that suggests that the fire was caused by a meth lab that was operating in the basement of the home. Investigators from Warren County Drug Task Force and the ATF were called to the scene. The fire remains under investigation. The only good news about this tragic event is that a dog who was tied up twenty feet from the scene was able to be rescued.
Note: Video reports that the victims were two males and one female, which was initially believed to be true. Since that video was produced all of the victims have been identified as being male.
Update: 6/8/2010 - Two of the victims have been identified through dental records. According to chief investigator Doyle Burke they are Arnold Ray Broughton, 38, and William Drew Miller, 28, who had moved out of his apartment in Middletown three weeks prior to the tragic fire. Miller had moved out of his Middletown apartment about three weeks before the incident and had been staying off and on with Broughton, Burke said.
Update 6/23/2010 John Carey, 41, was identified through dental records as the third man killed in the explosion.
References:
Walton, Jenell Walton. “Long search of burned home turns up bodies, meth evidence”. WCPO
ABC 9. 2 June 2010. Web. 7 June 2010.
Richter, Ed. “House owner ‘shocked’ over fatal meth lab blast”. Dayton Daily News. 3 June
2010. Web 7 June 2010.
WLWT News 5. “3 Bodies Found At Burned Franklin Home” WLWT News 5. 2 June 2010. Web 7 June 2010.
Richter and Heffner. “Meth lab blast kills 3, destroys home, investigators say”. Journal News. 3 June 2010 Web. 7 June 2010.
Richter, Ed. “Two bodies identified in meth lab explosion”. Dayton Daily News. 8 June 2010. Web. 8 June 2010.
whiotv. com. “Third man identified in meth lab explosion”. 22 June 2010. Web. 23 June 2010.
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