AZ - Chief surgeon & family found dead in fire

http://centurylink.net/news/read/ca...p-hospital_chief_surgeon_found_dead_in_ari-ap

Joyce Bonenberger, her husband, Dennis, and 11-year-old son Trevor were found in the Friday fire, Karen Kerr-Osman, Casa Grande Regional Medical Center spokeswoman, said in statement. The Pinal County Sheriff's Office said Dennis Brough, 50, and Joyce Bonenberger Brough, 51, owned the home......

Police and arson investigators are trying to determine the cause of the fire in a single-story home in a subdivision northeast of Casa Grande. It wasn't clear if the victims died in the fire or beforehand.

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Little more at link...will try to find more info.

Hospital's chief of surgery among dead in suspicious house fire

http://www.azcentral.com/community/...t-fire-kills-pinal-county.html?nclick_check=1

.......Police and arson investigators are trying to determine the cause of the fire and authorities have not officially identified the Bonenbergers as the victims who were found in the aftermath of the blaze.

Medical examiners said they would use dental records to identify the bodies from the single-story home inside the Desert Highlands subdivision near the intersection of Arizona 87 and Interstate 10.

Authorities have described the fire as suspicious.......

Curphy said Bonenberger was planning a big party for her child’s 12th birthday, which was Saturday

“She was very much a family person,” she said. “(The family members) were seen around this hospital many times. As a family they were very close. They did things together all of the time.”......

Recorded 911 calls released by officials shed some light into the frantic early moments as neighbors described the out-of-control fire spreading from the garage to the house, and how one of them tried kicking in a door and throwing rocks through windows to rescue those trapped inside. Another neighbor frantically tried to describe to dispatchers how firefighters could find the remote, rural area of the subdivision........

First responders, which included the Regional Fire Department, Casa Grande Fire Department and the Gila River Fire Department, arrived at the home within 10 minutes of the first 911 call, the sheriff’s office said.

Officials said the body of a man was found in the garage, a woman’s body was in the master bedroom and the body of a child was in another bedroom........

More at link......

SO glad you started this thread!

I was looking last night to see if there was one and hadn't found it but kept thinking surely there must be.

I'm not sure what to think (other than it does sound suspicious)...

You?

Me, too!

I was poking around last night and saw a few articles that all had the same information. Was too tired to start a thread. fftobed:

TravelingBug said:

SO glad you started this thread!

I was looking last night to see if there was one and hadn't found it but kept thinking surely there must be.

I'm not sure what to think (other than it does sound suspicious)...

You?

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Agree with the suspicions. For instance, why didn't they try to get out?

Is this connected in any way to the birthday of the son?

I'm thinking they were dead before the fire started. Will be very interested to see what LE finds and decides about these deaths.

The article said it appeared the fire started in the garage. As the husband's body was located in the garage, with the wife in bed in the master and as well the son in his bed, now I see why they said suspicious.

It'll be interesting to see the coroner' findings.

JMHO
fran

My guess would be murder suicide if the father was found in the garage and that is were the fire started.So sad for the family this time of year.

Sorry Fran I posted before seeing yours.

fran said:

The article said it appeared the fire started in the garage. As the husband's body was located in the garage, with the wife in bed in the master and as well the son in his bed, now I see why they said suspicious.

It'll be interesting to see the coroner' findings.

JMHO
fran

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It was interesting b/c one source said she had a meeting or surgery she was supposed to be at around the time of the 911 call. So why was she still in bed and apparently sleeping?

Yet we know the fire hadn't been going for ages b/c it was only in the garage from what at least one person said on one of the 911 calls from his perspective, meaning the whole house should have been engulfed by then.

Odd, too, that at least two individuals didn't hear what must surely have been the fire alarm going off. Leaving the husband out, since who knows w/ him in the garage and it starting there (nevermind that if it were truly an innocent cause there'd likely not be a fire alarm there and maybe he could have been trapped - again, if an innocent cause or one no one in the family had any knowledge of)

I wonder if there'd be any reason anyone would want to target them? Apparently they were basically inseparable - all three - and the husband worked for his wife.

Could he have found something amiss in the garage that caused the fire (circumstances, I mean) and not been able to get out or to warn them? But then, again, why wouldn't she and her son have heard a fire alarm, which surely would have gone off.

Anyone have scanner w/ rewind? Maybe down in the basement someone could relisten and see if they say anything on the 911 tapes w/ fire there about what they found or what immediately made them think it was possibly suspicious.

I've heard several calls here w/ fires - two car fires - and three house fires - that our MAST (metro arson strike team) were called out for. But on the scanner they were talking with investigators saying why they did (or didn't) think various incidents were suspicious, and in all the ones that were suspicious and MAST came out for - and one they're just getting to literally as I'm typing this and listening to that - they've said the indicators, at least preliminary, and that was just fire on scene and incident commanders.

I'd think they'd have done the same there, especially given the remoteness of the setting and needing to call out more resources, etc.

Anyone up here have the subscription so you could rewind and see if you can find anything and make a thread in the basement?

Chief Surgeon, Husband and Son Dead in Suspicious Arizona House Fire

Authorities are investigating what they called a suspicious fire in Casa Grande, Ariz., Friday morning that killed the family of three. An investigation is underway but officials say it's too early to tell what caused the fire.

Dr. Joyce Bonenberger, her husband, Dennis, and 11-year-old son, Trevor, were found in the fire, Karen Kerr-Osman, Casa Grande Regional Medical Center spokeswoman, said in statement.

Residents reported a large house fire around 6:37 a.m. Friday morning.


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As part of a tight-knit family, Bonenberger owned and operated her own private practice and her husband was her office manager. The couple home-schooled their son. The family had been preparing a big party Saturday to celebrate Trevor's 12th birthday. The Bonenbergers had moved into the home only three weeks ago.

more at link ............. http://abcnews.go.com/US/chief-surgeon-husband-son-dead-suspicious-arizona-house/story?id=21229489

abcnews.go.com/US/chief-surgeon-husband-son-dead-suspicious-arizona-house/story?id=21229489

".......Bonenberger had been the chief of surgery at Casa Grande Regional Medical Center since 2004 and was scheduled to be in surgery at the time of the fire......"


As TravellingBug pointed out..... I wondered as well why she was home ? Sounds like she was committed to her job , and wouldn't be late for doing a surgery.

Very sad case and hopefully there'll be more developments to explain how this tragedy happened.

Could be a murder suicide, but why would he do it?

Now if it was a different person who did the crime, why would he or she do this? Perhaps, an adulterous affair and/or envy?

Just my opinion.

If they only moved into the house 3 weeks ago, the house itself is an unknown...gas leak, some other issue that could start a fire? Grasping at straws - the fact that the fire was so intense so fast doesn't really point to an accident.

Something I hadn't thought about, but carbon monoxide playing a role seems like a possibility.

It could have put the son and wife into a very deep sleep or even dead (thus explaining not hearing the fire alarm) but perhaps the husband heard a carbon detector and was still semi-coherent (at least) and went to investigate. He could have then either accidentally (either b/c of effects of carbon monoxide making him not think clearly, or just not know what he was doing) somehow inadvertently start a fire - perhaps messing with a water heater or something.

That could explain his location, and why the wife and son were still asleep, when we know SHE at least should have already left the house.

Being a survivor of long-term carbon monoxide poisoning, and still dealing side effects of it many years later, I know how quickly it can be so, so dangerous or deadly.

I DID have a detector, but apparently its location (in the hallway - where it got cross breeze from windows at opposite ends of my house that were cracked year round) and getting JUST enough clean air kept it from going off, until one night, years into living here, I had closed both windows.

It explained years of health issues when that arterial blood gas test confirmed that's what it was, and every toxicologist and doctor I've met with since has said how miraculous it is that it hadn't killed me and that it must be b/c I have an extremely high tolerance to meds, and that's seemed to transfer over to just about everything (not that I drink much at all, but it's true of alcohol also)

They said that it's especially rare for people living alone to be killed b/c if people don't have a detector - or it's not working right or something as was the case w/ mine - because whereas a family might pick up on symptoms with multiple people being ill and then it getting figured out, anyone living alone doesn't have that "perk."

Though now they're pushed much more, there are still so many who don't have CO detectors or don't use them or don't regularly change the batteries, yet CO poisoning is SO serious.

Given that they just moved in, that actually almost ups the odds that CO could play a role. Water heater just hooked up, depending on the type of kitchen appliances used, etc. All are possibilities.

It was actually a new water heater put in in my home just before I moved in that was the source of my CO poisoning.

Not much of an update, but the wife has been officially ID'd.

Saying it could be 90 days for a cause to be determined.

http://www.trivalleycentral.com/cas...cle_069ab23a-67fd-11e3-9816-0019bb2963f4.html

3 killed in fire outside Casa Grande identified


http://www.azcentral.com/community/...lled-fire-outside-casa-grande-identified.html

Surgeon, her husband and son had lived in house just a few weeks<<<this disagrees with last section of the article:
The family had lived there for several years.

More from article:

Dr. Greg Hess, chief Pima County medical examiner, said dental records were used to identify the victims as Dr. Joyce Bonenberger, 51, and her husband, Dennis Brough, 50. Their son, Trevor, 11, was identified through description and circumstances.

&#8220;Everybody&#8217;s been identified,&#8221; Hess said.

&#8220;Now, it&#8217;s a matter of a little bit of time,&#8221; with toxicology tests likely to determine the cause of death in about three to four weeks.

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&#8220;We&#8217;re not tipping the scale in any direction yet,&#8221; Rice said, adding that no obvious sign of arson was found.

&#8220;I don&#8217;t have any weighted evidence to give a probability in any direction,&#8221; she said........

She said that the deadly fire began inside the house, which was equipped with smoke detectors but not sprinklers, and that the origin of the blaze and the cause have not been identified.

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More at link....also has video

The house is totally gone. What would cause a house to burn so completely like that? Shocking and very sad.

When I read that the other day - and tried to post but my browser crashed and I forgot to come back to it! - I was struck by a few things.

First, there had been talk about them not living there for long. But now they're saying it's been years.

Second, and more importantly, now it says the fire started in the house NOT the garage.

That's a HUGE switch, especially when the RPs who called 911 had said it was in the garage and then spreading to the house as well.

Were they all mistaken? But surely it would be evident which part was burning since we KNOW it wasn't gone entirely by the time they got there since initially one was trying to get into the house or something to make sure people were out. And then one clearly says then it was spreading into the house.

Plus, if it started in the house, that makes it even all the more weird. They specify that they had a fire alarm. When we had heard it was in the garage, it was still hard to imagine how they'd not have heard that, but if it had been far enough away from the home initially it sort of made a little sense. But now hearing it started in the house...surely the detector went off...how did they miss it? (Not that that should be as significant as the question as to why she was even still home, let alone in bed, when she was supposed to be at work by then)

I once saw a house that looked like that after it burned. It was a neighbor's house in a fairly isolated area. Thankfully they were not home at the time. It was an LP gas leak that caused it. And it involved an explosion plus a fire. I heard the explosion but did not know what it was at the time. The sound of it awakened me out of sleep. I actually thought I must have been dreaming until the State Police stopped at my house the next day as part of the investigation.

In any case, the house was totally leveled with just the stone chimney and a part of a wall next to it left standing. No one mentioned any explosion in this current case. But the house sure is leveled.

Baffling and heartbreaking...

I will be curious to find out if there were any "enemies" ... Of the family...

and... If there had been any relationship problems within the family...

JMO

Only minimal additional details from the last update - but this seems to be the most recent.

http://www.trivalleycentral.com/coo...cle_446db3c0-6ce2-11e3-ab36-001a4bcf887a.html

&#8220;The bodies were in pretty bad shape,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Determining the cause and manner of their death could take as long as 90 days.&#8221;

<snip>

Pyritz said the Pima County Medical Examiner&#8217;s Office is assisting with the autopsy investigation as it has an anthropologist on staff and Pinal County does not.

&#8220;They have a larger facility and it&#8217;s pretty routine that they help with major autopsies,&#8221; Pyritz said.

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Earlier this week, Bonenberger&#8217;s medical practice, Casa Grande Surgical Associates, closed its doors. Patients calling the practice are greeted by a recorded message advising that due to Bonenberger&#8217;s death, the office has closed. Bonenberger was the sole practitioner at the Trekell Road office.

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I have to say I thought the guy saying he already knew the home was engulfed before he arrived was...odd. I mean, so did everyone else listening to the scanner or their radios didn't they? Not that it's either here or there, really, it just...I don't know. Anyway...

Investigators are still searching for the cause and origin of the fire. That process could take several months, Pyritz said.

The fire was reported to 911 around 6:36 that morning after neighbors noticed flames. Callers reported seeing the roof collapse and the flames intensify.

Based on the calls, Steve Kerber, chief and founder of Regional Fire and Rescue Department, said he knew the home was already fully engulfed before he arrived on the scene at about 6:50 a.m.

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