The King County Medical Examiner’s Workplace has launched the names of 4 folks discovered lifeless Saturday after a home hearth in Seattle over the weekend and dominated three of them homicides
ByThe Related Press
September 6, 2023, 6:54 PM
SEATTLE — The King County Medical Examiner’s Workplace has launched the names of 4 folks discovered lifeless Saturday after a home hearth in Seattle and dominated three of the deaths homicides.
The medical expert mentioned Wednesday that Lana A. Stewart, 40, died from a number of sharp-force accidents; Sebastino Ragusa, 7, died from asphyxia from the inhalation of poisonous merchandise of combustion; and 4-month-old Valentina Ragusa died from smoke inhalation.
Salvatore Ragusa, 48, died from smoke inhalation, and his dying was dominated a suicide, the medical expert mentioned Tuesday. Police are investigating the deaths as an arson-homicide, The Seattle Occasions reported. A Seattle Police Division spokesperson mentioned Wednesday that investigators are usually not on the lookout for suspects. Town’s police Arson & Bomb squad is working with the Seattle Hearth Division to find out how the fireplace began.
Although Seattle police haven’t disclosed the connection between Ragusa and the victims, neighbors have referred to Stewart and Ragusa as a pair who lived in the home with their youngsters.
On Saturday, a toddler escaped the home within the metropolis’s Wallingford neighborhood by way of a window and contacted a neighbor, in response to the Seattle Police Division. Somebody referred to as 911 and reported an individual had died within the residence that was burning. Seattle police mentioned officers tried to enter the house, however the doorways had been barricaded.
Hearth crews discovered the our bodies of 4 folks and a canine after extinguishing the flames. Preliminary studies indicated somebody might have fired a gun across the time the fireplace began, however police haven’t mentioned something additional about that.
Courtroom data present Ragusa had completed a court-mandated county psychological well being program final 12 months.
Ragusa opted into this system after pleading responsible to reckless burning and malicious mischief stemming from a 2019 arrest for beginning a fireplace in Stewart’s condo within the Queen Anne neighborhood. Stewart was recognized in court docket data on the time as his ex-wife. He threatened suicide throughout the hearth, the police report notes.
