A 46-year-old man from Pennsylvania has been charged with criminal homicide following the death of his 19-year-old daughter in a house fire he allegedly started. The fire was reportedly ignited due to his anger over his separation from his estranged wife.
Brian Shelleby was also charged with aggravated arson and causing catastrophe, Allegheny County Police said in a statement.
Police said they were called to the scene of the fire just before 10 a.m. on Sunday and learned that first responders had found two victims, a 19-year-old woman who was pronounced dead at the scene and another adult woman who was transported to a hospital in stable condition.
Investigators soon learned that Shelleby had intentionally set the fire.
According to WPXI, Shelleby set the fire after his wife told him he was no longer welcome at the home. The wife managed to escape, but 19-year-old Lakyn Shelleby, a student at the University of Pittsburgh, was trapped inside.
Neighbors, who said it took “seconds” for the house to go up in flames, grabbed a ladder and tried to rescue the trapped woman to no avail.
“We broke the window, climbed up the ladder, screaming for Lakyn – no words, nothing,” Patrick Funwela said. “The smoke was unbelievable. It was the thickest black smoke I have ever seen.”
Funwela said the mother, Carly Shelleby, was at the hospital with “burns all over her legs from the waist down.”
“She lost everything in a matter of 30 seconds — daughter, house, husband,” he said.
According to an affidavit seen by Law&Crime, Carly Shelleby told her husband he could not stay at the home because of the separation. He told detectives he was trying to persuade her to change her mind but became angry when she didn’t and grabbed a gas can from the garage. She said he told her he was going to “burn the house down,” grabbed the 5-gallon can and poured gasoline throughout the house.
Carly Shelleby said she shouted for her daughter to get out, but as she ran out, “the house exploded into flames,” the affidavit said.
Brian Shelleby was still on the scene when police arrived.
