A man has been taken into custody under suspicion of setting a fire in his residence that led to the tragic deaths of his 74-year-old grandmother, her caregiver, and a woman with cerebral palsy. Brayden Blake faces charges of murder and arson according to the Monroe County Sheriff’s office in Indiana. Authorities responded to reports of a fire in the 3800 block of East Anderson Road near Bloomington, where they found the house ablaze and a vehicle crashed into the garage.
At the scene, responders discovered burn victims, along with an 18-year-old woman who had managed to escape the burning house. Unfortunately, the bodies of the grandmother, Mary Blake, and the cerebral palsy sufferer, Kristine Rowan, were found inside the property. Paula Anderson, 53, who had escaped along with the teenager, was identified as the other survivor.
Following the incident, a search was launched to locate Brayden Blake, who was later found in a wooded area near the property with severe burn injuries. Investigators uncovered a plastic petrol can near the dining room and detected the smell of a flammable liquid on a chair in the living room. Blake was initially treated at a hospital but left without informing the authorities, leading to a search effort by State Police and US Marshals to locate him in Avon, Indiana.
After a period of hospitalization, Blake was released and subsequently arrested on April 13, facing charges that include three counts of murder and arson. Declared indigent, he was assigned a public defender for his upcoming hearing scheduled for April 20.
