Indianapolis Homeland Security Director Gary Coons made the
announcement after meeting with residents of the subdivision where the
Nov. 10 blast occurred and shortly after funerals were held for the
two victims, who lived next door to the house where investigators
believe the explosion originated.
"We are turning this into a criminal homicide investigation," Coons
said, marking the first time investigators have called the case
criminal.
Search warrants are being executed and official are looking for a
white van that was seen in the subdivision on the day of the blast,
Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry said. Authorities are offering at
least a $10,000 reward.
Curry said the investigation is aimed at "determining if there are
individuals who may be responsible for this explosion and fire."
Neither he nor Coons took questions or indicated if they had any
suspects. No arrests have been made.
Officials have said they believe natural gas was involved in the
explosion, which destroyed five homes and left dozens damaged, some
heavily. Damage has been estimated at $4.4 million.
Investigators have been focusing on appliances as they search for a
cause of the explosion.
Hundreds of people attended the funerals earlier Monday for the couple
killed in the explosion, 34-year-old John Dion Longworth and
36-year-old Jennifer Longworth. She was a teacher remembered for
knitting gifts for her students, while her husband, an electronics
expert, was known as a gardener and nature lover.
Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard spoke at the news conference and said
he went to the Longworths' funeral and had a hard time coming to peace
with what had happened.
"There is a search for truth and there is a search for justice,"
Ballard said.
The couple lived next door to the house where investigators are
focusing. The co-owner of that house, John Shirley, told The
Associated Press he had received a text message from his daughter
recently saying the furnace in the home, which she shares with her
mother and her mother's boyfriend, had gone out.
Shirley's ex-wife, Monserrate Shirley, said her boyfriend, Mark
Leonard, had replaced the thermostat recently and the furnace had
resumed working.
The couple was away at a casino at the time of the blast. The daughter
was staying with a friend, and the family's cat was being boarded.
Monserrate Shirley's attorney, Randall Cable, declined comment on the
announcement Monday evening.
Associated Press writer Ken Kusmer contributed to this report from
Indianapolis.
In article <85oma85elcdab37p461vqsek77mu5v9...@4ax.com>,
Ed Pawlowski <e...@snet.net> wrote:
> On Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:54:41 -0800 (PST), harry
> <harry130...@btinternet.com> wrote:
> >> Associated Press writer Ken Kusmer contributed to this report from
> >> Indianapolis.
> >Pretty difficult to deliberately arrange a gas explosion.
> 1. Lend me your pipe wrench and I'll show you how.
> 2. Does not have to be deliberate of bring homicide charges.
I've done it a couple of times, in fact back in the day. After the fire department got done burning the inside of a house for training purposes, we got to set-up a NG blast in ocnjuction with the gas company and then sent our investigator rookies into do the scene. They were in not heavily populated areas and we set it up to blow fairly quickly so it wasn't as impressive as this one, obviously.
-- America is at that awkward stage. It's too late
to work within the system, but too early to shoot
the bastards."-- Claire Wolfe
On Tue, 20 Nov 2012 05:52:56 -0500, Ed Pawlowski <e...@snet.net> wrote:
>On Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:54:41 -0800 (PST), harry
><harry130...@btinternet.com> wrote:
>>> Associated Press writer Ken Kusmer contributed to this report from
>>> Indianapolis.
>>Pretty difficult to deliberately arrange a gas explosion.
>1. Lend me your pipe wrench and I'll show you how.
>2. Does not have to be deliberate of bring homicide charges.
3. The facts surrounding the owner of the house have made me
suspicious from the gitgo. Absentee owner was estranged husband.
House was on the market for a long tome- recently taken off the
market. Wife lives with boyfriend and daughter in the house.
Nobody home.
'Guido' apparently miscalculated how big a boom a houseful of gas
would make.
Refer to 1-- Is Harry really that stupid? It may not be easy to
get away with, but it is about the easiest thing in the world to do.
Ed Pawlowski wrote:
> On Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:54:41 -0800 (PST), harry
> <harry130...@btinternet.com> wrote:
>>> Associated Press writer Ken Kusmer contributed to this report from
>>> Indianapolis.
>> Pretty difficult to deliberately arrange a gas explosion.
> 1. Lend me your pipe wrench and I'll show you how.
> 2. Does not have to be deliberate of bring homicide charges.
You can't bring "homicide charges" because "homicide" (the killing of one human being by another) is not, per se, a crime.
In my state, there are five kinds of homicide:
1. Murder
2. Manslaughter
3. Negligent homicide
4. Justifiable
5. Excusable
Only the first three are criminal offenses. Here are examples of the differences: Two men on a deer-hunting trip when one shoots and kills the other.
1. With premeditation, the first hunter simply shoots and kills the second. MURDER
2. During a heated argument, the second hunter is shot. MANSLAUGHTER.
3. Hunter one is drunk and improperly handles his gun. NEGLIGENT.
4. Hunter #2 shoots at #1 first, #1 returns fire killing #2. JUSTIFIABLE.
5. Hunter #2 jumps from behind bush wearing a deer costume. EXCUSABLE.
>> Associated Press writer Ken Kusmer contributed to this report from
>> Indianapolis.
> Pretty difficult to deliberately arrange a gas explosion.
Ah, this brings back memories. I grew up in a perfectly respectable middle-class neighborhood. But one of the neighbors, who owned a well-known supper club, got sent up after he was convicted of engineering a gas leak ("faulty furnace") explosion that burned down his house. Turned out his restaurant business was in trouble, and he needed the insurance money.
Thirty years later there was another house that blew up and burned in an adjacent community. The homeowner was hospitalized in critical condition and later died from his burns. His girlfriend and daughter weren't home at the time, fortunately. Turned out the homeowner was my former neighbor's son, who was experiencing financial difficulties. He'd gone into the basement to rig the furnace for an explosion/fire, and miscalculated. He didn't get out of the house in time.
In article <nrsma8te1mvvfatss47l6ose0v368jp...@4ax.com>,
Jim Elbrecht <elbre...@email.com> wrote:
> 3. The facts surrounding the owner of the house have made me
> suspicious from the gitgo. Absentee owner was estranged husband.
> House was on the market for a long tome- recently taken off the
> market. Wife lives with boyfriend and daughter in the house.
> Nobody home.
The redflag to me is boarding the cat. Does anyone board a cat for three days? I don't own a cat, but my friends who do, don't spend the money for a couple of days.
-- America is at that awkward stage. It's too late
to work within the system, but too early to shoot
the bastards."-- Claire Wolfe
On Tue, 20 Nov 2012 08:04:39 -0500, Kurt Ullman <kurtull...@yahoo.com>
wrote:
>In article <nrsma8te1mvvfatss47l6ose0v368jp...@4ax.com>,
> Jim Elbrecht <elbre...@email.com> wrote:
>> 3. The facts surrounding the owner of the house have made me
>> suspicious from the gitgo. Absentee owner was estranged husband.
>> House was on the market for a long tome- recently taken off the
>> market. Wife lives with boyfriend and daughter in the house.
>> Nobody home.
> The redflag to me is boarding the cat. Does anyone board a cat for >three days? I don't own a cat, but my friends who do, don't spend the >money for a couple of days.
I didn't even see that one. Yup-- That alone would likely get me
digging.
And now the news says they also moved a car that had been parked on
the street for a long time.
Ed Pawlowski wrote:
> "We are turning this into a criminal homicide investigation," Coons
> said, marking the first time investigators have called the case
> criminal.
Just remember that I was the first one here to speculate it was done
intentionally - for financial reasons.
> Search warrants are being executed and official are looking for a
> white van that was seen in the subdivision on the day of the blast,
Did it have "Flowers by Irene" painted on the side?
> >> Associated Press writer Ken Kusmer contributed to this report from
> >> Indianapolis.
> >Pretty difficult to deliberately arrange a gas explosion.
> 1. Lend me your pipe wrench and I'll show you how.
> 2. Does not have to be deliberate of bring homicide charges.
The gas air mixture has to be right to get a good explosion.
This can't be guaranteed before ignition takes place.
And a source of ignition has to be provided somehow.
It's a murder like these stupid Hollywood films where the victim is
deliberately murdered by dropping an electrical appliance in the bath.
Concocted by idiots that know nothing.
For idiots that know nothing to watch.
We have an alternative lesser charge of manslaughter over here for
death by carelessness.
harry wrote:
> The gas air mixture has to be right to get a good explosion.
> This can't be guaranteed before ignition takes place.
If you have a gas leak in the basement, I garantee that somewhere in the
house the mixture will be perfect, and that somewhere will change over
time as more gas fills the house.
> And a source of ignition has to be provided somehow.
The occupants of the house probably turned down the thermostat to
somewhere between 60 and 65f before they left.
This would be a clever way to set off the explosion.
The furnace is working, the house is sitting at 70f. You set the
thermostat to 65, you create your gas leak near the furnace, and you get
everyone out and go to the casino where you'll be spending the night. It will take hours for the house temp to fall to 65, and all the while
the house is filling with gas. You turn off the water heater (or dial
it down to some low temp so it doesn't come on).
The house cools, the thermostat kicks in, the furnace ignition comes on,
then BOOM.
>> The gas air mixture has to be right to get a good explosion.
>> This can't be guaranteed before ignition takes place.
> If you have a gas leak in the basement, I garantee that somewhere in the
> house the mixture will be perfect, and that somewhere will change over
> time as more gas fills the house.
>> And a source of ignition has to be provided somehow.
> The occupants of the house probably turned down the thermostat to
> somewhere between 60 and 65f before they left.
> This would be a clever way to set off the explosion.
> The furnace is working, the house is sitting at 70f. You set the
> thermostat to 65, you create your gas leak near the furnace, and you get
> everyone out and go to the casino where you'll be spending the night.
> It will take hours for the house temp to fall to 65, and all the while
> the house is filling with gas. You turn off the water heater (or dial
> it down to some low temp so it doesn't come on).
> The house cools, the thermostat kicks in, the furnace ignition comes on,
> then BOOM.
And, so what if it doesn't "go boom!" but just burns to the ground? The (presumed) objective to have a reason to file an insurance claim has been achieved...
> On Tue, 20 Nov 2012 05:52:56 -0500, Ed Pawlowski <e...@snet.net> wrote:
> >On Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:54:41 -0800 (PST), harry
> ><harry130...@btinternet.com> wrote:
> >>> Associated Press writer Ken Kusmer contributed to this report from
> >>> Indianapolis.
> >>Pretty difficult to deliberately arrange a gas explosion.
> >1. Lend me your pipe wrench and I'll show you how.
> >2. Does not have to be deliberate of bring homicide charges.
> 3. The facts surrounding the owner of the house have made me
> suspicious from the gitgo. Absentee owner was estranged husband.
> House was on the market for a long tome- recently taken off the
> market. Wife lives with boyfriend and daughter in the house.
> Nobody home.
> 'Guido' apparently miscalculated how big a boom a houseful of gas
> would make.
> Refer to 1-- Is Harry really that stupid? It may not be easy to
> get away with, but it is about the easiest thing in the world to do.
> Jim
The only difficult part would be trying to arrange it to blow at a
specific time.
On Tue, 20 Nov 2012 05:52:56 -0500, Ed Pawlowski <e...@snet.net> wrote:
>On Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:54:41 -0800 (PST), harry
><harry130...@btinternet.com> wrote:
>>> Associated Press writer Ken Kusmer contributed to this report from
>>> Indianapolis.
>>Pretty difficult to deliberately arrange a gas explosion.
>1. Lend me your pipe wrench and I'll show you how.
>2. Does not have to be deliberate of bring homicide charges.
Actually it would be VERY easy to set up a "deliberate" gas
explsion.
>> >> Associated Press writer Ken Kusmer contributed to this report from
>> >> Indianapolis.
>> >Pretty difficult to deliberately arrange a gas explosion.
>> 1. Lend me your pipe wrench and I'll show you how.
>> 2. Does not have to be deliberate of bring homicide charges.
>The gas air mixture has to be right to get a good explosion.
>This can't be guaranteed before ignition takes place.
>And a source of ignition has to be provided somehow.
>It's a murder like these stupid Hollywood films where the victim is
>deliberately murdered by dropping an electrical appliance in the bath.
>Concocted by idiots that know nothing.
>For idiots that know nothing to watch.
>We have an alternative lesser charge of manslaughter over here for
>death by carelessness.
If I wanted to blow up a house with gas I would calculate the gas
flow from an open pipe, figure out how long to leave it open to get
the required mixture, and set up an electrical ignitor triggered by a
timer set to the required time. Dead simple - and almost fool-proof. Now I'm sure Harry could screw it up using british technology - and a
lucas ignition system.
>On Nov 20, 4:16 am, Jim Elbrecht <elbre...@email.com> wrote:
>> On Tue, 20 Nov 2012 05:52:56 -0500, Ed Pawlowski <e...@snet.net> wrote:
>> >On Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:54:41 -0800 (PST), harry
>> ><harry130...@btinternet.com> wrote:
>> >>> Associated Press writer Ken Kusmer contributed to this report from
>> >>> Indianapolis.
>> >>Pretty difficult to deliberately arrange a gas explosion.
>> >1. Lend me your pipe wrench and I'll show you how.
>> >2. Does not have to be deliberate of bring homicide charges.
>> 3. The facts surrounding the owner of the house have made me
>> suspicious from the gitgo. Absentee owner was estranged husband.
>> House was on the market for a long tome- recently taken off the
>> market. Wife lives with boyfriend and daughter in the house.
>> Nobody home.
>> 'Guido' apparently miscalculated how big a boom a houseful of gas
>> would make.
>> Refer to 1-- Is Harry really that stupid? It may not be easy to
>> get away with, but it is about the easiest thing in the world to do.
>> Jim
>The only difficult part would be trying to arrange it to blow at a
>specific time.
>Harry K
Even that is simple with a couple of timers, a remote valve, and an
ignitor. Don't try it with british equipment though.
> On Tue, 20 Nov 2012 08:47:15 -0800 (PST), Harry K <turn...@q.com>
>> The only difficult part would be trying to arrange it to blow at a
>> specific time.
> Even that is simple with a couple of timers, a remote valve, and an
> ignitor. Don't try it with british equipment though.
Appliance timer set to come on when you want the explosion to occur.
Set timer on gas oven to come on about to come on five minutes earlier.
Plugged into timer is igniting device.
TRIVIAL for investigators to detect.
I know how to make it nearly undetectable but I won't tell.
-- Wes Groleau
There ain't no right wing,
there ain't no left wing.
There's only you and me and we just disagree.
(apologies to Jim Krueger)
> Thirty years later there was another house that blew up and burned in an
> adjacent community. The homeowner was hospitalized in critical condition
> and later died from his burns. His girlfriend and daughter weren't home
> at the time, fortunately. Turned out the homeowner was my former
> neighbor's son, who was experiencing financial difficulties. He'd gone
> into the basement to rig the furnace for an explosion/fire, and
> miscalculated. He didn't get out of the house in time.
Kills himself trying to do what put his father in prison.
Intelligence sure runs in that family.
-- Wes Groleau
From the cowardice that shrinks from new truth,
From the laziness that is content with half-truths,
From the arrogance that thinks it knows all truth,
O God of Truth, deliver us.
--Leslie Dixon Weatherhead
--Rabbi Mordechai M. Kaplan
--ancient prayer
--unknown
--(no attempt at attribution)
(a thousand thanks to someone who can tell me who
really wrote it AND persuade me they're not making it up!)
> On 11-20-2012 07:48, Moe DeLoughan wrote:
>> Thirty years later there was another house that blew up and burned
>> in an
>> adjacent community. The homeowner was hospitalized in critical
>> condition
>> and later died from his burns. His girlfriend and daughter weren't home
>> at the time, fortunately. Turned out the homeowner was my former
>> neighbor's son, who was experiencing financial difficulties. He'd gone
>> into the basement to rig the furnace for an explosion/fire, and
>> miscalculated. He didn't get out of the house in time.
> Kills himself trying to do what put his father in prison.
> Intelligence sure runs in that family.
Particularly since the family name and the local memory of his dad's misdeed caused the investigators to immediately note the curious coincidence, and shortly thereafter find the evidence substantiating their suspicion.
>> >> Associated Press writer Ken Kusmer contributed to this report from
>> >> Indianapolis.
>> >Pretty difficult to deliberately arrange a gas explosion.
>> 1. Lend me your pipe wrench and I'll show you how.
>> 2. Does not have to be deliberate of bring homicide charges.
>The gas air mixture has to be right to get a good explosion.
>This can't be guaranteed before ignition takes place.
>And a source of ignition has to be provided somehow.
Even a bad explosion can get the job done. Not hard to do at all.
Source of ignition? Give me 15 minutes and I'll have a few rigged.
Give me $20 and an hour and I'll have a dozen rigged.
