Things have gone from bad to worse for one North Andover couple.
For nearly a month, Warren Kelley and his wife, Josephine, have been living in a hotel room after their home of 50 years was severely damaged by a fire – a blaze that killed their friend and severely damaged the unit they lived in.
"Josephine is 88. I’m 85. We’re over the hill," Warren said. "We shouldn’t have go to through this torture."
Now, the couple has endured another tough blow. The couple says their burned-out home was looted and their car was stolen from the driveway.
"I was upset," Warren said. "Who would want to steal a car from someone whose house just burned? Who’d want to break into a house that just burned?"
Warren says Josephine has dementia and is having a tough time with everything. He and his son had just brought her back from the nursing home when the fire happened.
"That’s the whole reason she doesn’t want to be in the nursing home," he said. "She wants to pass away at home. Soe we’re doing what we can to have that place at the house."
Warren says he had limited fire insurance. Even if the home is salvageable, he says he doesn’t have the money to fix it up. They’ll soon have to move to an elderly living facility. But they’re still holding onto hope they can return home to live out the time they have left.
"At this point, I don’t know what I’m going to do," he said. "I really don’t know."
Officials say they have recovered the couple’s car, but the suspect or suspects are still at large.
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