San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Anguish: Grief overwhelms family after three die.
The family held onto hope that their three loved ones had survived, even when they found their home reduced to ash. They searched hospitals and evacuation shelters. They posted notes on bulletin boards and desperate messages on social media sites.
They hoped that, somehow, Melody Bledsoe and her two great-grandchildren, Emily Roberts, 5, and James Roberts, 4, had escaped the flames as the Carr Fire rushed into Redding on Thursday.
On Saturday, the family members gathered at the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office to learn their fate.
Carla Bledsoe, an aunt to the children, arrived sobbing.
“We are waiting for them to tell us what they need to tell us,” she said.
The children’s mother, Sherry Bledsoe, shook with grief as she entered the building.
“My babies,” she yelled. About 30 minutes later, the family re-emerged.
“They’re deceased,” Sherry Bledsoe said, declining to comment further and asking for privacy.
Melody Bledsoe had been at her home on Quartz Hill Road with the children Thursday evening while her husband, Ed Bledsoe, ran errands in town. As the fire grew closer, Ed Bledsoe raced back, but with flames bearing down, he was unable to reach the home.
The 4-year-old, officials told the family, called 911 for help, but emergency responders were unable to reach them in time.
Don Kewley, the boyfriend of one of the Bledsoes’ granddaughters, Cynthia Hoskinson, said he called the home as he watched the fire from about 2 miles away.
“She was screaming, ‘It’s getting closer,’ and you could hear the sirens,” Kewley said. “Then the phone went dead.”
Melody Bledsoe was sickly and not very mobile, requiring a walker to get around, and there was no other car at the house at the time, said Jason Decker, the boyfriend of Shelley Hoskinson, another granddaughter.
The elder Bledsoes had raised Emily and James since they were babies, Decker said.
The children’s mother had been incarcerated and was released Saturday to attend the meeting with sheriff’s officials, according to family members.
Before they learned that the bodies had been found, Decker said it was incomprehensible to think of the children as being gone.
“They’re little kids,” he said. “Those kids deserve a good life. It brings me to tears thinking about it.”
Shelley Hoskinson, who posted a missing poster on social media, said they had gotten several leads from people who thought they might have seen the grandmother and children, but none panned out.
She said earlier Saturday that her grandfather had been convinced all three would be found alive.
“He’s just like, ‘OK, people go missing all the time. We’re going to find them,’ ” Hoskinson said. “At the same time, he just doesn’t want to think the worst.”
The road to the Bledsoes’ home was closed Saturday, with authorities saying the area was considered a crime scene as they searched the area for bodies or other information on the whereabouts of the three family members.
Decker said Emily and James were shy but fun kids who loved to ride dirt bikes and go fishing. The two were inseparable from their grandparents, he added.
“This is just the most horrible thing to happen,” he said. “Grandpa is such a good man. This is just the most horrible thing to happen.”