Milwaukee cops seek missing boy, woman after boy’s mom, 2 siblings found dead in burning home
By Dinesh Ramde, APFriday, February 26, 2010
Wis. cops: 2nd person missing after fatal fire
MILWAUKEE — Authorities were searching Friday for a 6-week-old boy whose mother and two young siblings were found dead after a fire in their home, as well as a 20-year-old woman who lived at the residence.
Police were treating the deaths of the 24-year-old woman, her 4-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter as homicides, Milwaukee Police Capt. Kurt Leibold said. Their bodies were found after a fire at their home that was reported early Friday.
Investigators believe the missing boy, Maurice Visor, is in danger and are seeking the public’s help in finding him, Leibold said at a news conference outside the family’s duplex.
“We need to find this child because we believe the child is probably in danger,” he said. He declined to elaborate about what danger Maurice could be in or why investigators were treating the deaths as homicides.
Investigators were also looking for Brittney Robertson, a woman who lived at the home, police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz said in a statement.
“We are currently unable to locate her and are concerned for her safety,” Schwartz said.
When asked whether Robertson was considered a suspect, Schwartz said Robertson was “a critical missing person, along with the baby.”
Leibold said officers were searching for two cars that belonged to the infant’s mother.
Investigators did not know who might have the baby, and they had no immediate reason to suspect the boy’s father, Leibold said.
Police were unable to issue an Amber Alert because they didn’t have enough information for one, Leibold said.
“The criteria isn’t matching because we do not have a person to name or a possible vehicle the boy is in,” he said.
Three people who lived downstairs from the family escaped the fire.
Diana Baldwin, 58, who has lived next door for about a year, said she had never heard any disturbances or loud noises from the mother’s home.
“They were quiet. They mainly kept to themselves,” Baldwin said.
Officers strung yellow police tape to block off a one-block radius around the house. Several neighbors watched the investigators through the windows of their homes but declined to come out and speak with reporters.
Across the street, three red roses lay near a stop sign under the police tape.
One passer-by stopped outside the tape and stood silently for a few moments. When a reporter approached him he said quietly, “If you talk to the family, tell them the whole neighborhood is hurting. Tell them we all offer our condolences.”
Then he turned and walked away, declining to give his name.
Tags: Fires, Milwaukee, Missing Persons, North America, Search And Rescue Efforts, United States, Wisconsin