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when I arrived at the scene I was told the victim was found laying on the floor in front of the stove Melissa Lish a
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27-year-old EMT was found dead on the kitchen floor of her home which had gone up in Flames Melissa was 9 months
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pregnant and was expecting to give birth in 2 days initially investigators didn't
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know what started the fire what are you looking for where the greatest damage is
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at where the fire patterns are at we're looking at everything and everything in this picture that may have something to
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do with the origin of the fire where do you think the fire started uh I believe the fires over here actually it's in
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these cabinet where these cabinets used to be above the stove area but when fire
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expert Michael P examined the stove thinking that perhaps cooking Flames caused the cabinets to catch fire he saw
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that neither the oven nor the burners had been turned on all the controls are in the off
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position and there is no fire damage in the interior of this oven to show that this was some type of cooking far pool
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also didn't find any electrical issues so we're starting to run out of accidental causes and we could identify
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at least three very simple and easy ways to exit this resident much of the house
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besides the kitchen remained accessible so pool thought Melissa could have found
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a way out it was what I would call a survivable fire this young lady was a paramedic she's used to dealing with
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emergencies for her to totally lose her perspective and stand there and try and fight that fire when you start putting
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all these things together that you start coming up with okay this makes no sense
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Melissa's autopsy results revealed she had normal carbon monoxide levels and no soot was found in her system it also
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revealed evidence of strangulation including hemorrhages around her neck the results showed that Melissa had died
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before the fire investigators had a person of interest in mind before Melissa's autopsy results came back they
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learned that the expectant father of Melissa's baby had been at the house that day Melissa had been talking to her
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sister Cassie ball on the morning of the fire we talked for about 2 and 1 half hours we talked a lot about the future
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we talked about what was going to come with the baby the conversation ended because she looked outside the window
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she said you got to be kidding me she's like he's freaking here again I told him
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he's got to stop doing this at the door was 33-year-old Matthew Ploy the expectant father of Melissa's baby she
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said I'll tell you what he wanted I'll give you a call right back bye hung up does she ever call back no my sister
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never called back