CLEVELAND — Both Cleveland Police and Fire are investigating a suspected homicide and arson in the city's Hough neighborhood.
While responding to a fire call at a home on East 88th Place near Hough Avenue, fire crews discovered a badly burned body with a gunshot wound inside.
The call came in around 1 a.m. Wednesday, when crews arrived, they found heavy flames shooting out of a rear window. They battled the fire for about an hour.
Once crews were able to get inside, they found a dead woman on the second floor of the residence, in the main room where the fire appeared most intense.
Police confirmed the woman had a gunshot wound.
“I’m blown away, like literally blown away, to see a house here in the Hough neighborhood gone,” said neighbor Michael Bruno, who woke to numerous emergency vehicles in the neighborhood. “It was really horrible. I’m praying for the best for the family.
Investigators are calling the death a homicide and consider the fire an arson.
“It’s super scary, especially considering the fact that someone died in this fire," said Crystal Sarich, a real estate broker at All Avenues Realty.
Sarich said she had been recently working with the owner of the house to sell the property before a pending sale did not go through.
She told News 5 that the owner had been renting out individual rooms in the home to two separate tenants. She wasn't aware of any issues in the house.
“The owner has always taken really good care of the house and really, really good care of the tenants as well,” Sarich said.
Cleveland Fire Lt. Mike Norman estimated the fire caused around $120,000 in damages.
The victim's identity has not yet been released.
