By STEPHANIE L. ARNOLD
Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA — An elderly Polish immigrant and her 21-year-old great-granddaughter were found dead last night in a fire police said was set to cover up their murders.
The women died about 5:30 p.m. — the time when firefighters were called to battle the blaze in the 3400 block of Sheffield Avenue in the Holmesburg section of Northeast Philadelphia. The blaze was declared under control in 15 minutes.
The women’s names were not released.
Firefighters found two women in a second-floor bedroom and concluded that there were “some things wrong here,” Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayres said. “We believe there is some foul play involved here, and the police have taken the lead on this.”
The grandparents of the younger victim also lived in the house. Next-door neighbor Edward Schaeffer said those two relatives pounded on his door and told him to call 911. The pair had returned home from work and discovered their house ablaze.
“They told us that when they opened the door, all they could see was smoke and weren’t able to go inside,” Schaeffer said.
Police Chief Inspector Joseph Fox said last night: “It’s pretty clear that there are signs of trauma on the body of the elderly female and a mild struggle with the young female.”
He said the fire seemed designed to cover up the homicide.
“There are people who believe that that’s the way to go about” covering up a murder, Fox added, “but it provides us with more evidence and actually makes it easier to solve.”
Fox said the house was not ransacked. He said that the culprit might have been somebody the family knew but that no motive had been determined last night.