"Sheriff: Kenosha, Walworth helping with explosion investigation"

From The Journal Times.com:

PATRICK LEARY patrick.leary@journaltimes.com  9 hrs ago  0

"RACINE COUNTY — The Racine County Sheriff’s Office has called in investigators from the Kenosha and Walworth County sheriff’s departments to assist in the ongoing investigation of the May 14 house explosion in the Town of Burlington.

"At a news conference Friday, Sheriff Christopher Schmaling announced that the investigation into the fire and explosion at 29235 Ketterhagen Road remains active and that he enlisted the help of the neighboring departments to help locate a third body in the debris.

"'Here in Racine County, we have a fire investigative task force,' he said. 'Kenosha has the same and so does Walworth. So we called upon their resources to assist us in trying to recover this third individual, who was supposedly in this home.

"Schmaling still could not identify the two bodies his department has located because he’s not comfortable speculating without being 100 percent certain about the identifications. Milwaukee resident Kayla Lambert said Tuesday that her father, Craig Lambert; his girlfriend, Kimberly Howe; and Howe’s son, Nicholas, all lived in the house and have been missing since Saturday.

"'I know there are a lot of individuals in the community saying "this is who these people are,"' Schmaling said. 'I don’t speculate on community rumors and theories that are out there. I work on facts and what evidence tells us.'

"As for the length of the investigation, Schmaling said that the fire, explosion and extinguishing efforts have made finding evidence very labor-intensive.

"'Everything which was once standing is now lying in a basement in a pile of smoking debris,' he said. 'That just doesn’t happen overnight.'

"In the coming days, Schmaling hopes to have answers to the community’s numerous questions.

"'I want to make certain that at the end of the day, we have done everything humanly possible to create closure for the families of these victims and to find out the cause and origin of that fire and why did that home explode,' said Schmaling."

Read more: http://journaltimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/sheriff-kenosha-walworth-helping-with-explosion-investigation/article_b2c50a1e-6f52-5af7-b779-c20444ed9be6.html