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in 1996
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a fire broke out in a rental home in
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north carolina
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one child died
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another was critically injured
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to the family the fire was a mystery
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to investigators
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it was murder
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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tabor city north carolina a small rural
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sweet potato farming community in the
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western part of the state and home to
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the henson family
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merry christmas buddy
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joshua henson and his sister brittany
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lived with their mother terry and her
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boyfriend rodney strickland
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rodney worked in construction
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terry was a homemaker and student
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on october 19 1996 rodney left to spend
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the night with his son in fair bluff
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about 15 miles away
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terry's mother bernice came over to the
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house that night for dinner i was there
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when she took brittany and
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josh upstairs to bed
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and as they were going upstairs to bed
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the last words i heard josh say is i
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love you
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because he was just learning to talk
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[Music]
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after bernice left
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terry plugged in a space heater to heat
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the home since it was the first cold
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night of fall
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she fell asleep on the sofa in the
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living room around midnight
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at 4am terry was awakened by screams
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from her children
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the house was on fire
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the thick smoke and flames made it
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impossible to reach the children
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the only thing terry could do was call
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the fire department
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the police arrived first and an officer
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also tried to rescue the children he too
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was unsuccessful
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he
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went kind of past me and got almost to
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the top of the stairway and said we
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can't get in
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to clear the way terry moved the space
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heater at the bottom of the stairs
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by the time firemen arrived the upstairs
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was almost entirely in flames
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the children were rushed to the hospital
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both in critical condition
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it's really hard to recognize her as
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brittany
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she was black from head to toe
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and they told me when i got there didn't
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think she'd make it
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brittany was fortunate she survived the
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fire
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tragically 17 month old joshua did not
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they finally
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came out and said that he didn't make it
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they did ask me if i wanted to see him
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they suggested i didn't
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but that i could that you know they had
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to ask and
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i didn't
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you know i really loved him a lot
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i really loved him like
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like he was my actual child
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i loved him like that
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[Music]
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i wanted my baby brother to at least
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have a long life
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he was too young to die
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when the fire was extinguished local
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authorities found evidence that the fire
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started in the children's bedroom closet
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at first they thought that brittany
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might have been playing with matches but
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when they looked into terry henson's
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background
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they uncovered information which made
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them suspect
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it might have been
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murder
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britney henson now eight years old
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remembers the horrible fire that burned
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through her home four years earlier
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i was burnt all over and i
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i had died and i was up in heaven and
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leave me that's beautiful
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and the rivers were
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rainbow
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baths and bridges and
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were gold and the houses were made out
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of
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clouds
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which had the names on top that were
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people of the people that would own them
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i'm special because i had died and i
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came back alive that's why i think i'm
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special
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her younger brother joshua just 17
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months old died in the fire
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i just miss him alone
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i wish he hadn't died i mean
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he was so young
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with any kind of house fire officials
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try to identify the cause
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generally a fire burns longest at or
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near its point of origin
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so the room with the most damage is
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usually where the fire started
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most of the damage was in joshua's
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bedroom
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which was at the top of the stairs
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investigators found a v-shaped pattern
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on the wall in joshua's bedroom closet
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it's a pattern that occurs when
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something combustible is against a wall
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this discovery told investigators that
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the fire started on the closet floor and
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traveled up to the attic
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a melted copper electrical wire was
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hanging from the attic which
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investigators concluded had been burned
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in the fire and was not the cause of it
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special agents from the north carolina
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state bureau of investigation and the
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federal bureau of alcohol tobacco and
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firearms assisted in the investigation
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they eliminated the nearby electrical
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outlet as the cause
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and when they couldn't determine how the
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fire started
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they concluded that someone had set it
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intentionally with a match or lighter
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i was told
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by the state agent that anyone who was
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in that house that night was a suspect
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anyone who had been in the house that
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evening would have been
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investigators first talked to brittany
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to see if she had been playing with
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matches that night they were satisfied
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she had not
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next they wanted to know where terry's
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boyfriend rodney was at the time of the
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fire
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rodney had plenty of alibis he was back
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in fair bluff with his son spending the
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night
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plenty of people saw him
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but investigators were most suspicious
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of terry since she was sleeping on the
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sofa downstairs when the fire broke out
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instead of in her bedroom upstairs
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and they also discovered that a few
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years earlier
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she had given three older children up
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for adoption
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the only reason terry let those children
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go
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was because she did love them enough to
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want the best for them and at that time
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she could not give them anything not
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even a home
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she didn't have a job she didn't have a
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car she didn't have no money she'd have
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anything
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people made
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a leap from
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that event
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the adoptions
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to
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somehow that becoming a motive for
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killing her other child
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witnesses also told police that at the
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fire scene terry behaved suspiciously
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her mama said that she had been
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depressed
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so she had been bringing books over for
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her to read at night
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and her boyfriend said that she would
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sleep on the couch
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they just didn't think terry was acting
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the way a mother would act if their if a
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child had been killed in a fire there
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was just something wrong to them about
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it
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she was blamed for the fire she was
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blamed that she's the one who did the
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fire
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no she didn't do it she didn't do a
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single thing
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terry denied having anything to do with
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setting the fire
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i was actually the only one considered
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they had to eliminate brittany
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because she was a child that could have
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started a fire at that age
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rodney couldn't be considered because he
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wasn't there he was
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12-15 miles away
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police arrested terry henson and charged
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her with murder attempted murder and
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arson
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and her nightmare continued when her own
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lawyer hired an independent investigator
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who agreed with the prosecution that the
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fire had been intentionally set
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i mean it took me a long time to realize
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my attorney wasn't going to help me
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i still held a lot of faith that he was
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going to do something and
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i finally realized okay he's not
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if convicted
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terry could face the death penalty
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for 61 days
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terry henson sat in a north carolina
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jail cell
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waiting to be tried for murder and arson
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eventually terry was released on a 200
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000 bond but remained under house arrest
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and with no one else to turn to
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terry conducted her own research into
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the fire that killed her son joshua
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first with her computer
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she made a search on the internet
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she typed in the word
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fire
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i spent several days probably weeks
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looking on the internet for
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something that would help my case
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i didn't understand the internet as far
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as there being actually people out there
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that you could talk to i wasn't sure of
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how to talk to them if i didn't know
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it was slow going until terry found an
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article written by a fire investigator
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in sydney australia
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is it an accidental fire or arson
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by tony k
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the article described common mistakes
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investigators make when determining the
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cause of a suspicious fire
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specifically it discussed the role of
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bias in fire investigation
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for example
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arson investigators tend to look for
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arson and insurance investigators tend
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to look for insurance fraud
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the article recommends that fire
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investigators have a scientific or
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chemical background
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terry desperately wanted to get in touch
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with the author
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i didn't understand email when i saw the
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little envelope thing on his page
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i clicked on it and it's
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you know like a blank page pops up for
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you to type in so i just assumed okay
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well i can send this to him
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and i still didn't understand how he
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would get back to me
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the author tony cafe did respond
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but since he lived in australia he
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recommended dr gerald hurst in austin
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texas
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dr hurst earned his phd in chemistry
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from cambridge
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and he agreed to look into terry's case
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homeowners
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burning house down to kill their
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children
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pretty rare
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very rare
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terry sent dr hurst every piece of
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information she had about the fire
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after reading through it
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dr hurst was struck by how incomplete
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the local investigation had been i
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decided to concentrate on the attic
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precisely because
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they had said almost nothing about the
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attic in the investigation report
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the attic was a complete revelation
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the insulation in the attic was made of
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ground-up newspaper treated with a flame
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retardant chemical
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dr hurst checked local weather
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conditions and he discovered that
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hurricane fran had passed through tabor
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city north carolina just six weeks
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before the fire
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terry said the torrential rains from
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that hurricane leaked through the roof
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and caused water damage in the ceilings
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dr hurst also found a melted 50-year-old
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electrical wire in the attic insulation
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terry told hearst there had been some
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electrical problems on the night of the
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fire
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her curling iron had been going on and
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off earlier that evening
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and when she moved the electric space
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heater for the firemen
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she remembers it was cold to the touch
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i picked that with both hands and just
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slid it out of the way
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and later is when it dawned on me that
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that heater should have been very hot
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and it had been turned on in
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full blast
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that meant that the heater had gone off
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uh at least a half an hour
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before she became aware of the fire
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dr hurst and fire investigator ken
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gibson flew to north carolina to inspect
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terry's home first hand
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they did not believe the fire started
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the way the government investigators
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said
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that's really very simple
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innocent people are being put into
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prison
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or forced into plea bargains for fires
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they did not start
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after terry henson was charged with
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arson and murder in the death of her 17
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month old son joshua
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her only hope was a scientist she found
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through the internet
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jerry hurst is one of these guys who
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kind of comes out of left field
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and can actually save the day in this
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case
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the findings of the state bureau of
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investigation and the bureau of alcohol
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tobacco and firearms rested on the
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theory
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that the fire started on the floor of
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the bedroom closet
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and when the cause couldn't be found
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they concluded the fire had been
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deliberately set
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atf they call themselves arson
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investigators the state call themselves
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arson investigators that's what they're
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looking for is arson
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that's what they train for that's what
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they go to school for
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is to catch arsonists
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what you want is a fire investigator
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to determine what caused the fire
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dr hurst found evidence that the roof
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leaked in terry's rented home
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and tests revealed it washed away the
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flame retardant chemicals on the paper
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insulation
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he also found evidence of electrical
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on the day of the fire
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mysteriously terry's curling iron was
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going on and off
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and during the fire when terry moved the
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space heater it was cold to the touch
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this indicated the heater had not been
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on for at least a half hour before the
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fire
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the heater was plugged into a line
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originally designed for 15 amps
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in the fuse box was a 30 amp fuse which
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had blown out
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that means that you're carrying more
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power through that wire than it was
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designed to carry
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and when you overload it it heats it
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gets hot
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a cold snap
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a 1500 watt appliance on a line that
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probably never seen that high wattage
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before
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and the question became
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did that
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electrical line over the top of the
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closet feed
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the heater
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because if it did
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you had a correlation you had a
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potential cause and effect situation
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and that is exactly what he found
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the cable in the attic fed the outlet
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used by the 1500 watt space heater and
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the curling iron
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that's what really frosted the cake for
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us
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we had
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an origin
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cause it could not be disproven
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scientifically and we had a connection
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between the differences in what was done
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that night what had been done before and
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that gives you a very strong presumptive
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case for an accidental fire
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dr hurst believes
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several factors created the chain of
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events that culminated with the fatal
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fire
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water from the leaking roof
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washed the flame retardant chemicals off
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of the paper insulation in the attic and
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further eroded the 50-year-old
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electrical cable
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over time as the rainwater hit the
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exposed portion of the electrical cable
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it arched burning the wooden attic beam
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and leaving behind char marks or carbon
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tracks
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wood does not conduct electricity
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but carbon does
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[Music]
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dr hurst believes that when terry
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plugged in the 1500 watt space heater
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that night it heated the electrical
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wires in the attic which arched
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those sparks touched a carbon track
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which ignited the paper insulation just
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above joshua's bedroom closet
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a wooden ceiling with a an already
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well-built fire that suddenly breaks
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through
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produces a holocaust in no time at all
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the fiery debris from the attic fell
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through the hole in the ceiling onto the
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floor of the closet
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and did not start on the floor and burn
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upwards as local investigators suspected
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ken gibson believes that the fire
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officials rushed to judgment
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so anything that doesn't fall into the
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theory that that this was part of how
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the arsonist started the fire
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to them it's not evidence it's just
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something that's there
00:19:16
dr hurst sent the local prosecutor his
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critique of the government's
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investigation which said
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their conclusions were based on
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junk science
00:19:27
not only
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is there a badly melted and arced wire
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it had arc marks on it which could have
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been caused by the fire
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but which could also have
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initiated the fire no way to tell
00:19:41
and that wire passed
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across dead center in the hole in the
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ceiling
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quite a coincidence
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to his credit
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the district attorney studied dr hurst's
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report conducted his own investigation
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and dropped the charges against terry
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henson
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but by the time it was all over she had
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lost her home
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her child
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and nearly her freedom because
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of an inaccurate conclusion
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drawn
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from faulty science
00:20:18
fire investigation in general is
00:20:21
the swamp of forensic science
00:20:23
in fact many forensic scientists refused
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to recognize arsenal investigation
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as a subfield of forensic science
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i think terry's story in many
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respects is heroic
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she was not a very well-educated woman
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although she's extremely intelligent and
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she had just enough computer studies at
00:20:45
her community college to know that if
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she was going to be under house arrest
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she needed some way where she could put
00:20:52
herself out into the world even if it
00:20:55
was only through her computer and email
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there's people sitting in prison that
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have gone through what i've gone through
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but they didn't have the help they
00:21:01
didn't know how to get it
00:21:03
didn't have the money
00:21:07
and that's not fair
00:21:09
terry henson
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cherishes her freedom and the time she
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spends with brittany
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yet terry thinks of joshua every day
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what he would have looked like
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what kind of person he'd be
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remembering
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the good times
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i look around and i see them everywhere
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[Music]
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we ran and we played and we had the dog
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to play with he swaying out of the
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street
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it's not fair
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[Music]
00:22:11
[Music]
00:22:33
you
