Investigators rule Seattle house fire a homicide-suicide case

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The King County Medical Examiner’s Office has released the names of four people found dead Saturday after a house fire in Seattle and ruled three of the deaths homicides.

The medical examiner said Wednesday that Lana A. Stewart, 40, died from multiple sharp-force injuries; Sebastino Ragusa, 7, died from asphyxia from the inhalation of toxic products of combustion; and 4-month-old Valentina Ragusa died from smoke inhalation.

Salvatore Ragusa, 48, died from smoke inhalation, and his death was ruled a suicide, the medical examiner said Tuesday. Police are investigating the deaths as an arson-homicide, The Seattle Times reported. A Seattle Police Department spokesperson said Wednesday that investigators are not looking for suspects. The city’s police Arson & Bomb squad is working with the Seattle Fire Department to determine how the fire started.

SEATTLE POLICE FIND 4 PEOPLE DEAD IN HOUSE FIRE, INVESTIGATING CAUSES OF DEATH, WHETHER BLAZE WAS SET

A Seattle, Washington, house fire that left four people dead over the weekend has been ruled as a homicide-suicide case.

Though Seattle police have not disclosed the relationship between Ragusa and the victims, neighbors have referred to Stewart and Ragusa as a couple who lived in the house with their children.

On Saturday, a child escaped the house in the city’s Wallingford neighborhood through a window and contacted a neighbor, according to the Seattle Police Department. Someone called 911 and reported a person had died in the home that was burning. Seattle police said officers tried to enter the home, but the doors were barricaded.

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Fire crews found the bodies of four people and a dog after extinguishing the flames. Initial reports indicated someone may have fired a gun around the time the fire started, but police haven’t said anything further about that.

Court records show Ragusa had finished a court-mandated county mental health program last year.

Ragusa opted into the program after pleading guilty to reckless burning and malicious mischief stemming from a 2019 arrest for starting a fire in Stewart’s apartment in the Queen Anne neighborhood. Stewart was identified in court records at the time as his ex-wife. He threatened suicide during the fire, the police report notes.