WKRN, Nashville, Tennessee News, Weather, and Sports |Giles Co. releases 911 tapes in fatal fire

Giles Co. releases 911 tapes in fatal fire

PULASKI, Tenn. – Authorities in Giles County Tuesday released the recordings of two 911 calls placed in the early morning hours October 23, minutes after a home on Milky Way Drive in Pulaski caught fire.

A mother and her two sons died in the blaze.

A neighbor placed the first call at 1:34 a.m.

Caller: "The house across the road from me is on fire, the woods are on fire."
Dispatcher: "Do you know if anybody lives there?"
Caller: "Yes, people live there but I have no idea if anybody was home."
Dispatcher:  "Okay, ma'am, can you see the flames?"
Caller: "Yes, I can.  They're going above the tops of the trees."

She called back a few minutes later at 1:37 a.m.

Caller:  "I had just called in and reported a fire across the road from my house. And there was just some kind of explosion down there."
Dispatch: "There was an explosion?"
Caller: "I was in the house, and I heard the "Kaboom."

Another call, nearly 30 minutes later, at 1:59 a.m. was placed by one of the suspects' mothers who called to report her son, 18-year-old Matthew Wood, and a friend were playing with fire and burned.

Caller:  "My son just called me and said him and a friend of his was playing with fire and he is burnt really bad and he's screaming and crying and I'm going as fast as I can to get to him."
Dispatcher:  "Okay, you say they have been playing with fire?"
Caller:  "He said him and a friend were playing with fire, with gasoline, and he got too close and it burnt all of his face."

Authorities said it was the second 911 call that linked them to Wood and 18-year-old William Charles Angel, Jr.

The Giles County Sheriff's Office held a news conference Tuesday afternoon, saying Angel and Wood are the only people responsible for this crime.

Both men are charged with three counts of first degree murder for killing 38-year-old Desere Thornton and her two sons, 16-year-old Jerrod Thornton and nine-year-old Anthony Thornton, and then setting fire to their home.

They are being held in the Giles County jail without bond.

Sheriff's investigators say both teens were students at Richland High School and knew Jerrod and Anthony Thornton.

The arrest warrants say the killing "was accomplished by or accompanied by the ignition of distributed gasoline."

Authorities declined to release any further details Tuesday about how the victims died or a possible motive.

Previous Stories:

• Oct. 27, 2009: Second suspect named in fatal Giles Co. fire
• Oct. 27, 2009: Memorial service planned for family killed in fire
• Oct. 23, 2009: Mother, 2 sons killed in Giles Co. fire, Teen charged