Fatal New Jersey house fire ruled a murder-suicide: Prosecutor

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, NJ — A massive fire on Sunday that leveled a New Jersey home, where first responders later recovered the bodies of a man and a woman, has been ruled a murder-suicide, authorities said Tuesday.

Neighbors reported hearing a blast around the time of the fire early Sunday in the Gloucester County community of Washington Township and said it sounded like a bomb going off.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office said the woman found dead in a bed at the destroyed residence had suffered a fatal bullet wound to the head before the house became engulfed in flames. Her death was ruled a homicide by the Gloucester County Medical Examiner's Office.

The man was discovered dead in the living room of the destroyed home with a handgun lying near his body, the prosecutor's office said. His death was ruled a suicide by fire, according to the statement from the prosecutor's office.

The identities of the two people were being withheld pending official confirmation by the medical examiner, according to the prosecutor's office.

"The investigation conducted in the aftermath of the fire revealed the presence of an accelerant and that the home's gas line had been tampered with, enabling unrestricted flow of natural gas into the home's interior," the statement said.

A motive for the murder-suicide remains under investigation by the prosecutor's office, the Washington Township Police Department and the Gloucester County Fire Marshal's Office.

News of the medical examiner's findings came a day after the Washington Township Police Department said the explosion had prompted a "criminal investigation" and that the incident was "not accidental."

The fire occurred at 2:02 a.m. on Sunday and prompted multiple 911 calls from neighbors reporting a loud explosion and fire in the area of Tranquility Court and Orion Way, according to a statement released by the Washington Township Police.

"Responding officers arrived at 13 Tranquility Court and observed that the residence was fully engulfed in flames and appeared to have been heavily damaged by an apparent explosion," according to the police statement.

Washington Township Fire Department firefighters arrived shortly after the police and extinguished the flames, according to the statement.

Video taken by ABC Philadelphia station WPVI showed damage to at least one home near the destroyed house. The footage also showed a car that had apparently been damaged.

Neighbors who live blocks away reported being rattled awake.

Investigators said the fire was likely not caused by an explosion and that the blasts neighbors heard may have happened after the fire had already ignited, according to WPVI.