ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A fifth body was found Friday in the fire-gutted wreckage of an Annapolis mansion, where four young children and their grandparents are believed to have perished. County fire officials announced the discovery after crews spent a third day sifting through the ruins of the $6 million mansion.
Don and Sandra Pyle, the owners of the eight-acre waterfront property, almost certainly died in the fire, along with Lexi, 8; Katie, 7; and their first cousins, Charlotte, 8; and Wes, 6.
The four Boone children were with Don, 56, a computer networking executive, and Sandra, 63, for a sleepover, a family spokeswoman said. “Pop-Pop and “Dee-Dee” took the kids to see knights jousting at Medieval Times before returning to their own castle, as neighbors called the 16,000-square-foot home.
All six were missing after the four-alarm fire early Monday morning reduced the mansion to ashes. Two bodies were recovered Wednesday and two more Thursday. The recovery of the fifth body leaves just one person still missing. The cause of the blaze remains unknown.
Capt. Russell Davies, an Anne Arundel County Fire Department spokesman, said crews were sifting the ruins by hand with the help of cadaver dogs. All the remains discovered have been sent to the state medical examiner’s office to be autopsied and identified.
Work will resume today, despite the forecast of rain, in hopes of recovering the last body, Davies said. Officials also will also keep gathering clues that could rule out any foul play.
“We’re definitely making progress in terms of determining the cause and origin based on the physical evidence we’re recovering as well as through the series of interviews we’ve received from the team,” said Special Agent Dave Cheplak, spokesman for the Baltimore office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Clint Boone, 37, and his ex-wife, Eve Morrison, 39, are parents to Charlotte and Wes. Lexi and Katie are the children of Randy Boone, 38, and Stacey, 34, who also have a newborn son who was home with them the night of the fire. Randy and Clint Boone are Sandra’s sons and Don’s stepsons.
On Friday, the family described the children: Lexi wanted to be a vet or on television when she grew up. Katie liked soccer, ice skating and Taylor Swift. Charlotte loved horses and “wanted to be known as a gamer” with an epic love of Minecraft, while Wes liked Legos and wanted to build robots when he grew up.
