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this week's episode of 48 Hours looks into the mysterious death of 27-year-old Melissa Lish on Thanksgiving Eve in 2020
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the devoted EMT and expectant mother was found dead on her kitchen floor after her home was engulfed in flames at first
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investigators could not tell if the fire killed her or if it was set to hide up or to hide a murder the investigation
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would soon uncover Secrets here's an early look at 48 Hours contributor Nikki batiste's report on November 25th 2020
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it was the day before Thanksgiving I received a phone call shortly after 4:00 from the Mount Morris police chief and
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he asked me kind of frantically is anybody at my house and I said my daughter is and said there's a fire and
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it's bad Gus Lish would learn his daughter Melissa was found on the kitchen floor by the stove Melissa a
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27-year-old EMT was pregnant and just 2 days away from her due date did you have
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any thoughts on whether this was an intentional fire or an accidental fire initially instinctively instinctively we
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couldn't tell if it was intentional or accidental Brian ker was the lead investigator for the Ole County
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Sheriff's Office we didn't know what happened to her investigators learned Melissa had a visitor at her home the
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day of the fire Matthew Ploy the expectant father who was a firefighter Melissa and Matthew had a casual
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relationship which cooled off when Melissa became pregnant he did not want the baby Heather Cruz assistant States
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attorney says py did not want to be a father and kept the baby a secret he did not care about Melissa or her baby his
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baby py though told investigators he had recently been talking to Melissa about being involved in the baby's life and
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that was why he was at the house that day and that Melissa was alive when he left she talked about joing some food or
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something but that we died didn't stay around I believe from the very beginning he was trying to set up a story that
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there was an accidental house fire that she had been cooking something which would explain why her body was found in
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the kitchen the state suspected Matthew Ploy was responsible for the fire and for killing Melissa it was a thought
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that stunned Rob Schultz the fire chief where Matthew py worked it doesn't chime
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with what a firefighter is we put fires out we don't start fires we help people we don't hurt
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people it is Unthinkable you can watch Nikki's report the firefighter secret on 48 hours
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tomorrow night at 109 Central here on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus