Fire Dot Com

SPEAKER_1 (0:03)

In 1996, a fire broke out in a rental home in North Carolina. One child died. Another was critically injured. To the family, the fire was a mystery. To investigators, it was murder.

A small, rural, sweet potato farming community in the western part of the state, and home to the Henson family.

Joshua Henson and his sister Brittany lived with their mother Terry and her boyfriend Rodney Strickland. Rodney worked in construction. Terry was a homemaker and student. On October 19, 1996, Rodney left to spend the night with his son in Fairbluff about 15 miles away. Terry's mother Bernice came over to the house that night for dinner.

Terry Henson (1:13)

I was there when she took Brittany and Josh upstairs to bed. And as we're going upstairs to bed, the last words I heard Josh say is, I love you.

Because he was just learning to talk.

SPEAKER_1 (1:30)

After Bernice left, Terry plugged in a space heater to heat the home since it was the first cold night of fall. She fell asleep on the sofa in the living room around midnight.

At 4 a.m., Terry was awakened by screams from her children. The house was on fire. The thick smoke and flames made it impossible to reach the children. The only thing Terry could do was call the fire department.

The police arrived first, and an officer also tried to rescue the children. He too was unsuccessful. To clear the way, Terry moved the space heater at the bottom of the stairs. By the time firemen arrived, the upstairs was almost entirely in flames. The children were rushed to the hospital, both in critical condition.

Terry Henson (2:32)

It was really hard to recognize her as Brittany. She was black from head to toe.

And they told me when I got there, they didn't think she'd make it.

SPEAKER_1 (2:41)

Brittany was fortunate. She survived the fire. Tragically, 17-month-old Joshua did not.

Terry Henson (2:52)

They finally came out and said that he didn't make it. They did ask me if I wanted to see him. They suggested I didn't.

But that I could, that, you know, they had to ask. And I didn't.

SPEAKER_3 (3:08)

You know, I really loved him a lot.

Terry Henson (3:12)

I really loved him like, like he was my actual child. I loved him like that.

I wanted my baby brother to at least have a long life.

SPEAKER_3 (3:24)

Because he was, he hardly even had a life. He was too young to die.

SPEAKER_1 (3:31)

When the fire was extinguished, local authorities found evidence that the fire started in the children's bedroom closet. At first, they thought that Brittany might have been playing with matches, but when they looked into Terry Hinson's background, they uncovered information which made them suspect it might have been murder.

Brittany Hinson, now eight years old, remembers the horrible fire that burned through her home four years earlier.

SPEAKER_4 (4:16)

I was burnt all over, and I had died.

Terry Henson (4:19)

And I was up in heaven, and believe me, that's beautiful.

SPEAKER_1 (4:23)

Her younger brother, Joshua, just 17 months old, died in the fire.

With any kind of house fire, officials try to identify the cause.

Generally, a fire burns longest at or near its point of origin. So the room with the most damage is usually where the fire started. Most of the damage was in Joshua's bedroom, which was at the top of the stairs. Investigators found a V-shaped pattern on the wall in Joshua's bedroom closet. It's a pattern that occurs when something combustible is against a wall. This discovery told investigators that the fire started on the closet floor and traveled up to the attic. A melted copper electrical wire was hanging from the attic, which investigators concluded had been burned in the fire and was not the cause of it. Special agents from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms assisted in the investigation. They eliminated the nearby electrical outlet as the cause. And when they couldn't determine how the fire started, they concluded that someone had set it intentionally with a match or lighter.

Terry Henson (5:47)

I was told by the state agent that anyone who was in that house that night was a suspect. Anyone who had been in the house that evening would have been.

SPEAKER_1 (5:57)

Investigators first talked to Brittany to see if she had been playing with matches that night. They were satisfied she had not.

Next, they wanted to know where Terry's boyfriend Rodney was at the time of the fire.

SPEAKER_4 (6:13)

Rodney had plenty of alibis. He was back in Fairbluff with his son, spending the night. Plenty of people saw him.