Two dead in suspicious fire
Bodies found after Springhill blaze ID’d as woman, 45, and man, 42
The two bodies recovered from a home near Springhill that was damaged by a suspicious fire Tuesday have been identified as those of a 45-year-old woman and a 42-year-old man, RCMP said Thursday.
Officials have so far released little information about the victims or what caused the fire on Beatons Lane.
But one local politician told The Chronicle Herald that when firefighters arrived at the scene, it didn’t appear as if fire had killed the two people.
“There was talk about murder-suicide,” said Doug Williams, a local councillor and a former Springhill police officer of 30 years.
“The community obviously wants to make sure that, if it’s a murder and there’s suspects out there, well, they always want to be aware. But, at this point, it doesn’t look like that.”
A couple from Ontario had recently purchased the home, he said. Property registration records show Jennifer Lynne Semenec, with a mailing address in North Bay, Ont., bought 20 Beatons Lane in December. The Cumberland County house is assessed at $26,000.
“The house wasn’t burnt bad. So I don’t know what took place there,” Williams said. “It is odd. I really don’t even know if they had a source of heat because the place was gutted.”
The couple was spotted in a local hardware store Monday buying about 25 pieces of two-by-four lumber, said Williams, one of two Springhill representatives on Cumberland municipal council.
“The house was gutted and they were apparently coming here, fixing it up and then going back home ... they went back and forth that way,” he said.
That prompts the question: why rennovate a home if you’re planning a murder-suicide? “I don’t know,” Williams said. “Unless things went bad.”