Police Say Rockwall House Fire Deaths Were Intentional
ROCKWALL (CBSDFW.COM) - A husband and wife are dead following a house fire in Rockwall early Monday, but police are investigating the deaths as suspicious. The incident happened at about 5:00 a.m. in the 1200 block of White Water Lane, near John King Road.
Firefighters were called to the home and reported seeing smoke and flames when they arrived at the scene. Crews managed to get the blaze extinguished very quickly. Two people were found dead inside of the house, along with a 4-year-old girl who was not injured.
The victims were identified as Yoon Kim, known as Debbie. She was an Assistant Professor of Engineering at Texas A&M Commerce. She had been shot and killed.
Police say her husband, Hyun Lee, a professor at Grambling State Univiversity, shot Kim, placed their 5-year-old daughter in a car in the driveway, set a fire in the house to cover up murder, then shot and killed himself.
The child is now in Child Protective Services custody, until family from Korea arrives.
Investigators remained at the house for several hours afterward, combing through the scene to determine the cause of the fire. The Rockwall Police Department called the deaths "intentional," and believe that the man and woman might have died in a possible murder-suicide.
Sgt. Aaron McGrew with the Rockwall Police Department said, "There's pretty clear and apparent evidence that some foul play was involved at some point during the incident." There have been no previous 911 calls to this location, but most homes in this neighborhood are less than two years old.
Neighbors described the couple as kind, smart and caring. "It's super strange," added Aaron Bray, who lives across the street. "As far as we hear, everything was great. People can hide a lot of things. You just never know. Super sad."