JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) – Two women have been charged with second-degree murder in the death of a man who was trapped inside a burning home in Joplin, police said.
Elizabeth M. Baez, 39, of Joplin, and Tiffany A. Lukasiewicz, 39, of Pittsburg, Kansas, were charged Thursday with second-degree murder, first-degree arson and first-degree domestic assault. They were being held without bond at the Joplin City Jail.
David Crowder, 68, died in the fire Dec. 4. He was trapped inside the single-story house before firefighters pulled him out and he died later at a hospital, the Joplin Globe reported.
An autopsy conducted Monday at Frontier Forensics in Kansas City, Kansas, determined Crowder died from smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide poisoning, police said.
Police reported that two women were found outside the house after the fire and one was taken to a hospital in critical condition while the other was stable. Police did not say if the two women were Baez and Lukasiewicz.
Online court records do not name an attorney for either woman.
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