6 years after fatal Flora arson, no arrest; mom pursues justice in court
FLORA, Ind. (WISH) — Gaylin Rose survived the Nov. 21, 2016, arson that killed her four young daughters in Flora.
The girls — Keyana Davis, 11; Keyara Phillips, 9; Kerriele McDonald, 7; and Konnie Welch, 5 — died in the house fire. Rose, their mother, and two police officers were also injured in the fire.
Rose has been forced to live with the loss every day over the last six years.
Her attorney says Rose is fighting for justice and accountability against her landlord for not having the required working smoke detectors in the house.
Faith Alvarez, Rose’s attorney, said, “Indiana law requires that smoke detectors be installed outside of each bedroom, and they be working. Well, when Gaylin rented this apartment there weren’t any.”
The complaint filed in a U.S. district court claims one smoke detector without batteries was found on the ground in the property.
The suit lists the landlord company Birch Tree Holdings and two landlords, Joshua Ayres and Troy Helderman, as responsible for the lack of working fire detectors. Indiana law states landlords and landlord businesses are responsible for ensuring there are working smoke detectors in a property, the attorney said.
The defendant’s expert fire witness, Todd Hetrick, said, “It cannot be reliably concluded that Ms. Rose would have had sufficient time to wake herself and her children and safely egress from the structure in an intentionally set fire scenario even with a functional smoke alarm in the kitchen or living room.”
The legal team expects to enter a jury trial sometime in 2023.
Alvarez said of Rose, “She is doing remarkably well under the circumstances, but this type of grief when you lose a child it is like losing a limb. It’s something you will never fully recover from.”
“What we’re looking for in the civil case is justice and accountability for these four children and Gaylin Rose who almost lost her life that night as well,” Alvarez said.
Sgt. Jeremy Piers, a spokesman for Indiana State Police, said of the case, “We continue to actively investigate it. We put all available resources toward any tips and leads that come in.”
Piers would not comment on the volume of tips or the status of the case.
In a recent News 8 interview about the February 2017 murders of 13-year-old Abigail “Abby” Williams and 14-year-old Liberty “Libby” German in nearby Delphi, Doug Carter, the superintendent of the state police, also talked the fatal Flora arson.
The four Flora girls were killed less than three months prior to Abby and Libby.
Carter said in the News 8 interview, “On my way up here, I stopped in Flora and I sat across the street in the gravel parking lot there and I just thought, ‘I hope that one day we can do the same thing for these four little girls,’ and I hope that we can. They’re very different; both tragic outcomes. So, we will continue to do everything that we can with that investigation. Any notion that we’re not is simply not accurate.”
