AKRON, Ohio (AP) – Two girls and their mother were dead before their father set their house on fire, causing a massive explosion that killed him and shook homes through the neighborhood, authorities said Thursday.
The girls were either strangled or smothered, the Summit County’s medical examiner said. Their mother died of a Prozac overdose, officials said, and their father, 43-year-old Jeffrey Mather, died of burns after he set the fire using gasoline.
His death has been ruled a suicide.
All four bodies were found Jan. 11 inside the Northfield Center Township home. Mather’s wife and daughters were discovered in a first-floor hallway. Investigators suspect they had actually been upstairs and fell to the first floor when the ceiling collapsed.
The medical examiner found no evidence of smoke inhalation in the mother or daughters.