Police rule fire suicidal

NORTH VERNON, Ind. – Investigators have concluded that a house fire that killed a toddler and three adult relatives likely was set by one of the deceased to commit suicide.\nToxicology tests found that 42-year-old Elena Hardwick had levels of Prozac and amphetamines in her system three times greater than therapeutic levels, Officer Andrew Richmond, a spokesman for the town’s police department, said Tuesday.\nInvestigators believe that Hardwick was trying to commit suicide by drug overdose and then set the fire while the others slept on the morning of Nov. 19.\nThe others killed were Hardwick’s grandson, 18-month-old Hunter Hardwick; her daughter, Erika Hardwick, 23, who was the boy’s aunt; and her mother, Helen Dean, 72, who owned the house.\nPolice ruled Elena Hardwick’s death a suicide and the others as homicides.\nRichmond said investigators with the police department and the state fire marshal’s office concluded that scenario was the most likely cause of the fire, which was ruled arson about a week after the blaze in the town about 50 miles south of Indianapolis.\n“She may have been mobile and able to start the fire, but she may not have been aware of her surroundings, which would have included whether there were other people in the house,” Richmond said.\nThe one-story, ranch-style house was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived about 8:30 a.m. in the city 50 miles east of Bloomington. All the victims were found dead in a front room and died of smoke inhalation, authorities said.\nDetective Ivory Sandefur wrote in a police report that people he had interviewed told him that they believed Elena Hardwick could commit suicide, but he concluded she “unknowingly” caused the other deaths.