Police: Missouri fire that killed a woman and her 4 children was a murder-suicide

By The Associated Press

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) — Police say a fire that killed five members of a Missouri family was intentionally set by the mother. St. Louis County police announced late Wednesday that a preliminary investigation ruled that the deaths of Bernadine Pruessner, her twin 9-year-old daughters Ivy and Lillie Pruessner, and her children 5-year-old Jackson Spader and 2-year-old Millie Spader was a murder-suicide. Police Sgt. Tracy Panus says in an email that investigators believe that Bernadine Pruessner set fire to a mattress. Police say the mother left a note stating her “intentions to take her life and the lives of her children.”