Kansas City police investigating fatal house fire as ‘suspicious death’
The Kansas City Police Department has opened a suspicious death investigation after a child was seriously injured and a woman died Wednesday evening following a fire inside a residence.
About 5 p.m., police were called to the 5400 block of Woodland Avenue after someone dialed 911 seeking help, said Officer Donna Drake, a department spokeswoman. When the officers arrived, Drake said, the Kansas City Missouri Fire Department had already arrived, and firefighters found two people — identified only as a woman and a child — injured inside the house.
They were taken to a nearby hospital for medical treatment, Drake said. The woman later died of her injuries and the child is in critical condition, Drake said.
At the scene, police created a large perimeter of roughly one square city block, cordoned off with crime scene tape. Detectives with the department’s bomb and arson unit were investigating, Drake said, and considered the origin of the fire to be suspicious.
The department is asking anyone with information to call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-8477 or homicide detectives at 816-234-5043.
This story was originally published March 31, 2021 at 8:57 PM.
