Authorities have arrested the dad and mom of two younger ladies who died in a Murrieta home fireplace final yr that burned a number of buildings and killed a number of animals.
Stacey Hales, 46, and Adam Keenan, 43, from Murrieta have been arrested Friday and booked on a number of expenses related to the fireplace that began in the early hours of Dec. 20.
In accordance with the Murrieta Police Division, officers responded to a residential construction fireplace at 41690 Knight Drive and located a cellular house, carport, three autos, two outbuildings and a big pine tree engulfed in flames. Firefighters extinguished the fireplace after about 45 minutes.
The couple’s daughters, 11-year-old Abagail Keenan and 12-year-old Emma Keenan, have been discovered lifeless inside the house, together with a number of family pets. Hales and Keenan have been hospitalized after the fireplace.
Investigators decided that Hales and Keenan have been “criminally liable for the fireplace,” in keeping with police.
Hales, who’s free on $160,000 bail, faces two counts of reckless burning inflicting loss of life, two counts of reckless burning of an inhabited construction, two counts of kid endangerment and one depend of animal cruelty. She can also be dealing with a sentence enhancement, in keeping with police.
Keenan was charged with two counts of kid endangerment and one depend of being underneath the affect of a managed substance. His subsequent court docket look is scheduled for March 17, in keeping with reserving data.
Within the days following the tragedy, a household good friend created a GoFundMe web page to assist Hales cowl funeral prices for the ladies. The fundraiser reached $54,000 by Dec. 22, in keeping with a earlier Instances report, and later raised greater than $113,000, KTLA reported.
The beneficiary of the funds was Hales’ brother, Scott Nalder. The web page has since been eliminated.
Murrieta police encourage anybody with details about the investigation to contact Det. Velazquez at (951) 461-6340. Data may additionally be supplied anonymously by way of the division’s web site.

