Authorities in eastern Arkansas were investigating the deaths of three people, including a young child, as a triple homicide after fire crews discovered their bodies in a burning mobile home Monday morning.
Officials said fire and law enforcement agencies were sent just before 1 a.m. to a burning mobile home in the 1100 block of Bailey Street in Earle, a town roughly 30 miles west of Memphis. Fire crews put out the blaze and found the bodies of two adults and the child, said Todd Grooms, head criminal investigator for the Crittenden County sheriff's office.
The cause of the fire was being investigated Monday morning, and Grooms said the sheriff's office was investigating the deaths as homicides.
"We're using every resource available to find out what happened to these people," he said during a morning news conference.
Authorities declined to identify the victims, but Grooms confirmed that the woman in the home was the child's mother. The age of the child wasn't immediately known.
The sheriff's office declined to say whether it had made any arrests or if it was actively seeking a person suspected of starting the fire.
Local officials said the bodies were sent to the state Crime Laboratory to determine the causes of death. A state fire marshal was investigating the cause of the fire.
State Desk on 04/17/2019