Springhill – Rumours of what firefighters found inside a Beaton Lane home in Springhill started circulating the town before the last fire truck left the scene last night.
RCMP confirmed this morning two people were found deceased inside the home March 20, but released no other information other than the fire itself was being investigated as suspicious. Rumours have been circulating murder may be involved but without any further details from police, it is still unknown what the truth is.
Nonetheless, two people have died, somehow, and the community is reacting to the unfortunate news.
“It’s shocking,” Margaret MacNeil said as her day volunteering at the Salvation Army thrift shop began.
MacNeil said her family had already been shocked by a series of fires in the community of Collingwood, which experienced five vacant house fires over a three-week period. Rumours did not connect the Collingwood fires to the scene on Beaton Lane, however, where RCMP were turning away traffic from driving down the normally idle one-way street with a cluster of homes at the end, one of which was the home that caught fire the night before.
“All I had heard was some people from Ontario had bought it, and that’s about all I heard,” one nearby resident said while looking towards the police presence. “I don’t think they’d get all these police here just for the sake of hanging [out] here.”
Some rumours have been particularly grisly about the scene firefighters found inside the home, including a rumour a man and woman were killed violently inside the home prior to firefighters arrival. None of these speculations have been confirmed by police. If there is a whiff of truth to any of the rumours, however, it would mark the first murder in the community in seven years.
The last murder investigation in the community occurred in October 2011, when an 18-year-old male walked into the former Springhill Police Service and admitted to killing his 37-year-old mother inside a Mechanic Street trailer home.
Links:
Police confirm Springhill fire is a crime scene
Collingwood residents angered by local arson incidents
Fear follows foul play
http://www.cumberlandnewsnow.com/news/local/fear-follows-foul-play-29263/
