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September 18, 2012

Official: Fire, burglary linked

‘Real strange’ crimes linked by blood trail

By Dylan Goforth Phoenix Staff Writer

Muskogee authorities believe there’s a connection between a pair of recent crimes on the west side of town.

Muskogee Fire Marshal Ray Bob Daniels said he believes a fire at 702 Kershaw Drive on Saturday was a result of arson. Muskogee Police Department Investigator Rob Frazier said a house on 54th Street, just east of Kershaw Drive, was burglarized the same day as the fire.

Harold Stockton, who owns the home on Kershaw Drive, said he doesn’t live there, but checks the home each day to make sure it’s OK, Daniels said.

Daniels said Stockton had been to the home before the fire, and had locked the house up when he left. A neighbor who first spotted the fire reported seeing the front door open as he dragged his garden hose over to try and slow the blaze down.

Both homes had blood streaked through the interior, Daniels and Frazier said, leading Frazier to believe the same person was inside both houses.

“We tracked a blood trail a long way,” Frazier said.

Emergency dispatch logs state a person called 911 to report seeing a “white male teenager” walking up 54th Street Saturday afternoon, covered in blood.

Frazier said investigators looked for that person, but as of Tuesday hadn’t located him. Daniels said authorities had checked area hospitals for a person matching the description, but nothing had come from it.

“From the looks of the houses, whoever it was lost a lot of blood,” Daniels said.

Daniels said police took blood samples from both addresses. A dead dog was found inside the house on Kershaw Drive that belonged to a woman who lived nearby. The dog had no visible wounds, so Daniels said it likely died of smoke inhalation. However, the woman who identified the dog as hers, said the leash on the dog did not belong to her, so the dog must have been taken out of her yard by someone.

“It’s a strange case,” Daniels said. “Real strange.”

Reach Dylan Goforth at (918) 684-2903 or dgoforth@muskogeephoenix.com.

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