Destroyed by fire, loss
A woman survived after her grandson allegedly set fire to their house,
shot himself
MARION, Ohio — Mahalie Moore cared for her grandson most of his life, sharing her home, buying him food and protecting him from outsiders. Early Tuesday morning, she awoke to the smell of smoke inside 373 Olney Ave. The 71year-old broke through her bedroom window to escape the burning home and ran for help.
Inside, she would later learn, her grandson, Christopher Glass, was dead.
Fire investigators say that Glass, 34, intentionally set the fire outside his grandmother’s bedroom, went to his own bedroom and shot himself in the head.
Marion Fire Capt. Wade Ralph said that Glass also had partially broken a gas line into the home to accelerate the blaze. Glass was found on his bed next to a handgun.
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Moore was in serious condition at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center with cuts on her arms and hands and second-degree burns on her face, neck and chest.
Friends and relatives want to know why the kind widow who tended to her garden and doted on her grandson became a target.
“He had been depressed. I just can’t believe he’d want to take her with him,” said Leroy Gillam, 71, Moore’s longtime boyfriend.
Next-door neighbor Walter Hopkins awoke to Moore frantically pounding on his door.
She was bleeding from a gash in her arm, her hair was singed and she was yelling, “Help me. Help me. Help me. My house is on fire. My grandson’s still in there,” said Hopkins, 75. “Why the hell would he want to take his grandmother with him? That ain’t right.”
Walter Lane, Glass’ uncle, said his nephew was troubled but not violent. He might have been trying to spare his grandmother from her own depression.
“That’s how it happens sometimes when they’re going through this mental stuff. You take the closest person with you,” Lane said
Glass, who lived on disability income, was a loner, rarely leaving his home but causing little trouble, relatives and neighbors said.
He had become increasingly depressed since his mother’s death in November from a heart attack. So too had Moore after the loss of her daughter, Gillam said.
The investigation was delayed by about two hours when the Columbus bomb squad was called to investigate a grenade, later determined to be fake, and containers of liquid in Glass’ bedroom that were beverages. They found several guns in Glass’ bedroom.
Inside the heavily damaged home, Gillam sorted through Moore’s belongings, finding an envelope with cash in a metal box, but not her leather purse.
“How could you do your grandma that way?” Gillam said. “I’ll never know.”
The fire was the third arson since early Sunday, when Marion firefighters, who have responded to a recent rise in heroin overdoses, fought two house fires believed to have been intentionally set and connected to drugs.
Donations to help out Mahalie Moore can be made through an account in her name at any Chase bank.
If you are having thoughts of suicide, call the Franklin County Suicide Prevention Hotline at 614-221-5445, the Teen Suicide Prevention Hotline at 614-2943300 or the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-2738255.