Law&Crime Sidebar - Mom, Son, and Girlfriend Found Murdered Inside Burning Texas Home

Episode Date: August 25, 2024

Investigators in Harris County, Texas are trying to figure out who may have set a home on fire in the city of Cypress. Crews responded to put out the flames last weekend and found the bodies of three people inside. They were identified as 54-year-old Kelly Ann Masciarelli, her son Kolin Foster, 23, and his girlfriend Cameryn Richard, 21. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber analyzes the case with arson investigator Robert Rowe.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/LCSidebarDownload the FREE Upside App at https://upside.app.link/sidebar to get an extra 25 cents back for every gallon on your first tank of gas.HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger and Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. I have a great day. And you know what? God loves you. Cheers. A mom and devoted content creator has been identified as one of the people found dead inside of burning home alongside her adult son and his girlfriend. Now, authorities have also revealed that the three victims were dead before the fire started. We've got expert analysis from an arson investigator to figure out what is going on here. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by law

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I affirm to do the very best I can and everything I do. A community in Texas is in mourning after three people were found dead inside of their home in Cyprus. This is outside of Houston. And one of those people was 54-year-old Kelly Ann Mascherelli, an avid social media user who often posted selfies and videos. And the other two victims? Her 23-year-old son, Colin Foster, and Foster's living girlfriend, Cameron Richard. In fact, according to Cameron's social media posts, she just turned 21. not too long ago. Family and friends have spoken out to local media described all three as great

people to get the sense of how much they meant to those around them. And then this happens. So what happened? Well, firefighters responded to Mascherelli's home Sunday morning just after 7 a.m. And when they put out the flames, they find the three bodies. But they also found what they suspected pointed to foul play, namely that an accelerant was used. Homicide detectives reportedly believe all three were dead before the fire started, that this was likely a way for the killer to cover their tracks? Now, investigators haven't announced how all three died. We don't know the cause of death. We believe this is now being determined a homicide, but the cause of death is still an unknown, and they're going to be waiting on the autopsy results. And according to KTRK out in

Houston, investigators are trying to find a suspect, but they haven't said publicly who that might be. So it's unclear from the reporting if they have somebody in mind and they can't find the person or if they're really just trying to determine a suspect. It's also unclear if anyone else lived in that home with Kelly Ann, Colin, and Cameron. But here's what's really interesting. While detectives were on the scene, they collected a lot of evidence, even towing away Colin's red corvette. And that had been parked in the driveway and it appeared undamaged. Now, why is that important? Well, first of all, Kelly Ann actually posted a photo of this Corvette on her Facebook page last Thursday, commenting on Colin's, quote, new toy.

And authorities told KPRC that Colin, who recently celebrated his birthday, had bought the car and that the previous owner was not a suspect, but they also said that a neighbor heard a car door slam in the middle of the night. And when they looked, they didn't recognize the person driving the Corvette. Investigators, they're now looking for any video from the area to see if any new leads might come from security cameras that are mounted on nearby homes. So a lot of unknowns at this point. This is such a tough, tough story to report on. It's not easy. This is not easy. It is important. It is an important story to talk about nonetheless. I always say it's our privilege to be able to bring you these stories. And we're able to do that because of the support that we get from our sponsors. And I just want to call out one in particular right now. Morgan Morgan,

an incredible partner of ours. America's largest injury law firm. Look, if you should get hurt, this is a firm with over 1,000 attorneys, you may want your corner. Verdicts and settlements in the multi-millions, a full dedicated team, no upfront fee. The whole process can be done straight from your smartphone. It is all so easy and client-focused. So if you're injured, you can easily start a claim at for the people.com slash lc sidebar. Okay, let's get back to it. Right now I want to bring in a special guest. Arson Investigator and President of PiroCop, Fire and Life Safety Consulting Services,

Robert Rowe, to talk more about this. Robert, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for the work that you do. How do you even begin an arson investigation? Well, it's a very meticulous process. And the reason for that is that when you, should you go to court on any type of a case on this with regarding to the topic that we've just discussed, the evidence we've discussed, it's a type of system. It's called the scientific methodology. And that science, scientific methodology is outlined in the publication through the National Fire Protection Association, and that is the guide to fire and explosion investigations. Now, in the field, a lot of investigators say it's kind of tedious. There's a lot that you have to process. And in this case, it's going to be, you know, the interviews, it's going to be the evaluation

of evidence. There's a lot involved there. But this guidebook kind of helps an investigator go through it. So it is a scientific methodology where you basically collect evidence, you process that evidence. You develop a hypothesis as to what you believe as being the cause of the fire or the person's responsible for the fire. And then you develop this hypothesis and you have to prove it. When you go into the courtroom, you will get beat up pretty hard by the attorneys because they use that standard of care in order to question the experts or in this case it would be the arson investigators. So defense attorneys will grill the investigator as to how they performed their investigation. And I'll pick it apart

if they have an opportunity to. I don't know what you're talking about. Defend defense attorneys questioning experts in a courtroom trial. What on earth do you mean, Robert? I've never seen anything like that before. My gosh, you mean questioning credentials and questioning past cases? I don't know what you mean. But no, truth be told, I completely understand exactly what you're saying. And I have to tell you, I imagine, look, I think any investigation is probably difficult. But when you're dealing with arson, what are the particular difficulties with an arson investigation? I feel like there's so many unknowns and so much damaged evidence. So if you can walk us through, what are some of the difficulties you think in these kinds of cases and particularly the one that we're looking at here?

Well, the difficulty, as you just said, you know, which is pretty much the case, is that the evidence has been exposed to fire. you know high levels of heat you know it's just basically um the evaluation you as an investigator we walk into a fire scene first of all we have to uh uh prevent contamination of that fires or that that that fire scene so that means you have to isolate the property only a certain number of people can go in they have to sign in they have to sign out so you basically have to secure the site that's the number one thing investigators do and the other part of that equation is the attorneys will, again, meet you in the courtroom, is, are you qualified to conduct that investigation? So every investigator that walks into the scene, they had better have the proper

training and the experience levels to be able to take that case into the courtroom. So with regard to the actual investigation, you're absolutely correct. The scene can be completely gone. You may not have a whole lot to work with. But in some cases, the firefighters get in there and they will extinguish a fire in a quick order. And you may have some preserved evidence, which is really nice for the investigator. But it's still the same process. You have to photograph and document each piece of evidence you collect.

You have to then log it, and then you have to pack it properly. And then you preserve it in an evidence locker until it's time for going into either a prelim or whatever that may be. So with regard to the fire scene, what we look at is we look at a lot of things. You walk in, you get better at it as you get more season because when you walk into a fire scene, you determine is this accidental or does this look intentional? And you have to make that decision.

And there are little clues that may arise. Maybe you might smell a little gasoline. Maybe you may see a fire trailer that is only a little line in the carpet that is going to another area that's heavily. burned so you may see see signs of of an of an of an accelerant being poured or placed in a particular room or area of the house could be the whole house so so you're looking at you know you're smelling you're looking at fire patterns can i focus on that point for one second yeah absolutely yes any question may say when they say um like an accelerant was used and they seem to know that here they seem to signify a part of me wondered well wouldn't that have been burned up

how on earth could you know an accelerant was used but you'd describing there could be a pool of an accelerant in one corner or you might smell gasoline. It's that obvious? Those are the ways that they would be able to determine an accelerant. Is there other ways? Well, yeah, there are other ways. And surprisingly, you know, that first way of detecting a suspicious fire is pretty common. But there are times when the fire consumes either the home or the evidence so thoroughly that you may have to bring in a cany. You know, they train canines in order to detect trace evidence of an accelerant.

It could be alcohol, gasoline. There's all types of different products that the dogs are trained for. And it's just a tool. It's not an all-encompassing investigation when you bring a dog in. It's just another tool in your tool bag. And they're very effective. And a well-trained dog can really help you out is at least honing in on an area. And at that point, you have to start collecting San Francisco.

samples, you know, and you have to start taking control samples from areas that weren't burned and then you have the same carpet material, and then you take the area where you believe the Accelerant Rules Board, and then you collect those and you submit those to the lab and you request that the lab look at certain types of an accelerant. So at that point, then you're really, now the science is kind of coming into the equation. You know, you're collecting your evidence. You may take a lot of photographs of burn patterns on the wall, on the, on the floor, the floor may, if it's a raised floor, you could see evidence of gasoline dripping through the planks of the wood and the house. So that is a deep char type of burn. You may have to collect

that section of wood of the floor. So it can be, you know, you have to either accelerate into the evidence collection or you decelerate saying, well, we might not need that. And it's sometimes very hard, but it's always better to collect every, a lot more than not collecting enough. Sure. So then all this goes to a lab, and then you have that lab experience. And how do they know that these people in this case died before the fire, or they seem to indicate that they knew they died before the fire was set? Is it because there was no soot in their lungs? Well, and that's a very good point, because a lot of the cases that involve fatalities,

you do, you know, during the autopsies, most investigators will attend the autopsy to get direct information from the attending physician. But what they do is they do check for soot in the lungs and whether it's post-mortem fatality from smoke inhalation or that it was a cover-up homicide. And I've been on both of them. You have to be very careful on those as well because now you're intermingling your investigation

with the homicide detectives. And so you have to be very careful about what it is you do. and how you preserve the body, and there's just a lot happening there. And then most of that happens, most of that evidence that you've just talked about with regard to the autopsy is kind of a shared type of information. They want to know, number one, was a person murdered before the fire. And then we want to know based on, you know, the levels of COO and the system, carbon oxide in the system, you know, what happened there?

So we're basically working in unison together, and that's a very, I always, I've always been, you know, very close to our police officers and law enforcement that are on these scenes because it's a shared investigation. And from a legal point of view, whether the person was killed before or after the fire is set is also important in terms of the charges that someone will face as well. You know, I imagine the autopsy could be difficult. have a body that is particularly damaged by fire, that must prevent its own, that must present its own kind of difficulties, right? It does. And part of an investigator's evaluation is to

look at the burn patterns on a body as well. You know, you may have damaged body, you know, to the body on the right side and they may be laying on their side. And somebody may say, well, the fire started, you know, I was in this area, which was completely opposite of where, you know, the damage to the body is. So there's, you know, you can corroborate their story just by saying, well, wait a minute, you know, we've got damage on the right side of the body, but you're saying that, you know, you saw it on this side. So, you know, you've got to be able to weed all that information out and put it into, and a perspective. So. And one of the things, two things that I thought were really unique about this. And I think that's interesting. And I'm curious your

perspective on this. It's being reported that one of the victims was found on the first floor. the other two were located upstairs. So whenever you have victims in a house that are found in different locations, it kind of gives you, I think, a time frame of how the killings occurred, but also I think it's interesting as well. And this happened again. The fire was set at 7 a.m. in the early morning. What are those two factors tell you about this investigation?

Well, you know, obviously, you know, you're going to want to look at human behavior and what was going on before the fire. What were they doing? Were they sleeping? Did they get up to brush their teeth? Did they, you know, were they fixing breakfast? I mean, there's all these different things. You have to be able to sort that out.

And as far as the, you know, the time of day, you know, it's rare that that you have a fatality fire at 7 a.m. When most people are getting up, it usually occurs late night, midnight, you know. So the time of day is a factor when we're doing investigations. Because that takes time, right? It would take time to actually set. the fire and have no one notice that's correct that's correct and then the other thing too is is every arsonist that i've dealt with usually loves the cover of night um so they're not seen you know cameras it's hard to make out you know identities with cameras and and and so if you don't

you know if if you're in daylight time you're going to there's a chance if you're going to get the color of your pants there's a color of your hair uh you know your build all that because you're well lit up so a lot of the times a lot of the arsonance i've had it's been late night or early morning. I'll tell you what, look, I hope they find out who's responsible and the Harris County Sheriff's Office is asking anybody with information about the case. Contact its homicide unit at 713-274-9100 can also call a crime stoppers of Houston at 713-2-2-2-2 tips. Before I let you go, Robert, let me ask you real quick, do you have confidence given the different elements of this crime, the different details I laid out, do you have confidence that it will be solved?

Well, you know, there's a lot more detail that hasn't been disclosed to the public for obvious reasons because it's an act of investigation. But, you know, after reading the story, after listening to a few little things, I would probably be suspicious as well. And, you know, the investigation, like I said, I think a fire investigator, very important that a fire investigator knows his or her role and where they are as far as they're part of the investigation. We don't want to criss-cross over into the police department's investigation, homicide. And it's just good relationship to work together on these cases. So there may be, you know, they say, you know, everybody loves a firefighter, right? And not so much with the police department these days, but, you know, God bless them. They put up with a lot.

But the thing is, is that people sometimes talk to firefighters a lot more candid than they would with law enforcement. And so, you know, sometimes we will kind of weave in, you know, those two areas of expertise to kind of get to the bottom of it. And it's been successful. You know, we've had a lot of convictions when I was an informer in the city of Downey. You know, we did quite well. There may be arson task force that they're using, using other departments, you know, the expertise of other departments. But it's a cohesive investigation that I'm sure they're going to do fine. It's just getting very, you know, digging down in the facts and interview, making the proper interviews, but you'll probably find their person. All right. Well, listen, I mean, you guys play such an

important role in this, particularly this kind of case. So Robert Rowe, Arson Investigator, president of Pyro Cop. And I will say right now, not only such a valued guest, but arguably one of the best backgrounds of any guests we have seen. Such a little tropical paradise you're in right there. But Robert, enjoy the day. It looks beautiful. Thank you so much for coming on, sir. Appreciate it. All right. You take care of yourself.

All right, everybody. That's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. crime series, ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.