FLORA, IN — Flora residents told the Journal & Courier six months ago that they doubted that the Nov. 21, 2016, house fire that killed four girls will ever be solved. But the FBI and state police aren’t giving up yet.
FBI agents and Indiana State Police detectives will go door to door in and around Flora to try to find new information or jar people’s memories of something that might be the break in the case.
Chris Bavender, FBI spokeswoman for the Indianapolis FBI division, said detectives are not talking about this week’s push to find evidence.
“Even if residents were already interviewed or believe the information they have has already been provided, we are asking that they share that again,” Bavender said in a news release. “Something they remember — even if they believe it is small — can help. It could be something they saw, heard, or were told at the time of the fire — or since.
“We ask they come forward and allow us to evaluate the information,” Bavender said.
Tips may be submitted online at tips.fbi.gov or by calling 800-CALL-FBI. The tipsters may remain anonymous.
Four sisters — Kionnie Welch, 5, Kerriele McDonald, 7, Keyara Phillips, 9, and Keyana Davis, 11 — died Nov. 21, 2016, in their Flora apartment. The case remains an open investigation, and the FBI and state police are canvasing the town looking for evidence.
Indiana State Police Sgt. Jeremy Piers said, “We continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners at the local, state and federal levels, including the FBI, to conduct a thorough and comprehensive investigation.
“While we recognize the public’s interest, this remains an active investigation,” Piers said, indicating the state police will not release any new information about the case.
The investigation
Fire investigators initially said the cause of the fire at 103 E. Columbia St. was undetermined, but they believed it started in the kitchen area in the apartment’s first floor.
A little more than two months after the fire, state fire marshals ruled that the fire was intentionally set, indicating that accelerants were found at several places inside the apartment.
The fire trapped Kionnie Welch, 5, Kerriele McDonald, 7, Keyara Phillips, 9, and Keyana Davis, 11, in their upstairs bedrooms, where they died. Meanwhile, their mother, Gaylin Rose, repeatedly charged into the burning house in an attempt to help her daughters, but the heat and smoke forced her from the house each time, according to a report in the Indianapolis Star.
More: Mystery plagues small Indiana town after fire that killed four children
The charred and boarded-up house at the southeast corner of Columbia and Division Street served as a reminder of the tragedy, and it remained untouched until August 2023, when it was torn down.
The site is now just a vacant lot. But town residents still speak fondly about the girls and their mother. No one interviewed earlier this year for a Journal & Courier report has forgotten that November night in 2016.
“They’re never going to solve it,” Peggy Goris said in January of the Flora fire. “They’re not doing anything to solve it.
Snow blanketed the otherwise weed and mud lot at the southeast corner of Columbia and Division streets in Flora, Indiana, on Jan. 16, 2025. In November 2016, an arson house fire at this site killed four girls. The case has never been solved.
“There hasn’t been anything on anything that they’ve found reported on over the last two years,” said Goris, who lives in Cutler but works in Flora. “I think it’s a cold case.”
However, Piers reiterated Monday what he said in January: The case is open and active.
There is a $5,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible.
Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: FBI, state police go door to door to try to solve fatal 2016 Flora fire