Last week, Hazel Louise Reece told friends she noticed dry hay stashed under her Bledsoe County, Tenn., home and feared someone was going to try to kill her by burning her house down.
On Monday morning, hours before she was to appear in court in a case against her estranged husband, she was found dead, her Pikeville home burned down around her.
A man arriving to work on Reece’s well Monday called 911 when he saw the house was burned, according to Harold Blaylock, chief of the Griffith Fire Department, which responded to the scene. Reece, 63, was dead inside.
State arson investigators have been searching for clues since Monday, but Friday they would not comment on the investigation.
Attempts to reach Bledsoe County Sheriff Jimmy Morris were unsuccessful Friday, and messages were not returned.