On January 15 1995 at approximately 3:30am, a fire was deliberately lit in a three-storey block of apartments in Sydney’s south-west suburb of Liverpool.
Forensic pathologist Peter Ellis said fire travelled up the stairs to the top floor, killing seven adults and one child.
Forensic pathologist Peter Ellis shares what he found at the scene of the Speed Street Apartment Fire on the Crime Insiders podcast:
“There was allegedly definite evidence that accelerant had been used,” Ellis said, “Poured in the steps of the stairwell, maybe further up into the apartment itself. So somebody had clearly done that deliberately.”
Early in the investigation, there was no way of knowing who lit the fire. All investigators knew was names of the people who occupied the apartment.
To identify the victims’ remains forensics used teeth to compare with dental records and DNA evidence.
Ellis’ job was to conduct autopsys on the remains to establish cause of death.
“The big question is, is it the fire that actually killed them, or were they killed by something else?”
Police said one of the victims had a questionable history and believed he could have been the perpetrator. But Ellis believed otherwise.
Crime Insiders: Forensics host Kathryn Fox said, “This was a 17-year-old male who made threats against the family and had a penchant for fires.”
“Exactly right,” Ellis said, “He was actually one of the two bodies that was found on the balcony.”
The balcony was the part of the apartment that was furthest away from the fire’s likely point of origin.
“While historically he might have been a significant suspect, from the point of view of the fire itself and where he was located, it was extremely unlikely that he was the person responsible for actually starting this.”
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