KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City, Kansas, police said a deadly fire is now being investigated as a homicide.
Assistant Fire Chief Morris Letcher said firefighters were on their way back to the station from a previous call around 4:45 a.m. when they smelled smoke. They looked for the origin and found flames coming from the second floor of a house on North Mill Street, near Central Avenue.
"We just proceed to do our job of putting the fire out and we have certain protocols that we do in regards to search and rescue to clear the house and upon those protocols, we found bodies," Letcher said.
Police officers were called to the scene just after 5 a.m. to assist in the investigation.
Preliminary investigation showed the three people found dead were homicide victims, police said.
The victims were a woman and two juveniles. Family members identified the victims as 14-year-old Amerikha Rodriguez, 10-year-old Jeancarlos Rodriguez and Yazmine Rodriguez, who is in her early 30s.
KCKPD said its Major Case Unit is handling the investigation.
Anyone with information is asked to call the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-8477.
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Editor's Note: The Kansas City, Kansas, Fire Department initially said two adults and one juvenile had died. The KCK Police Department later corrected that information and said a woman and two juveniles were killed. A previous version of this story stated that family members said Jeancarlos was 8 years old.
