WILMINGTON, MASS. (WHDH) - Fifty years after a house fire in Wilmington killed six members of the same family, investigators say they now consider the blaze to be arson.
The year 1969 forever changed Sue McNamara’s life when her family home caught fire on September 26. She, two brothers and their father were able to make it to safety but, Sue’s mother and five other siblings never made it out.
“My oldest brother Harry came in with my aunt and uncle and a priest and at that time told me that, he said, ‘Sue, you, and dad and Mike and I are the only one’s left.”
The deadly blaze was originally thought to have been an electrical fire but decades later, that line of thinking has shifted.
“The fire chief was convinced a few years ago that there was more than one point of origin for that fire,” Retired Detective Chris Neville said.
“There was a rumor going around shortly after the fire that someone was bragging about doing it,” McNamara said. “Low and behold, years later, it’s the same person that we are talking about.”
“The more I dug into it the more I saw that this individual had a history of setting fires,” Neville continued.
Neville said that history includes crimes scattered across the United States.
Some with convictions for arson-related crimes in New England.
“The person bragged about setting it,” the detective said. “I think there is probably a pretty good chance that he had some involvement in setting the fire in 1969. That’s my belief. Can I prove it? Not at this time.”
While visiting her family’s gravesite in 2012, McNamara was approached by the person of interest. He gave her a phone number and she got in contact with Neville.
“The thought went over in my head, ‘If you want to clear the air about something, now would be a good time to do it,” Neville said. “He never did and up to this point we still havent had an opportunity to talk to him.”
As for McNamara, she said she will continue to fight for justice for her family.
“So people ask, why are you… you know, why are you still doing this,” McNamara said. “Because these people mattered.”
That fight, which began at her family home will end there too. McNamara purchased and built her own home on the same plot of land.
“Some people think, ‘How can you stay there with all these memories? Don’t they haunt you,” She said. “It does just the opposite for me. I see all these wonderful times.” “We just need that one little something that could break this thing wide open.”
McNamara is now trying to get a cold case unit in the Middlesex District Attorney’s office to review the case.
“We just need that one little something that could break this thing wide open.”
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