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00:00Firefighters were called to the Lincoln Motel on Lincoln Highway around 2.30 a.m. and arrived
00:14heavy smoke and flames. Guests at the motel said they woke up to the sound of fire alarms
00:19and screaming. I've seen victims of fire but never saw a person that was intentionally set
00:27on fire. It's a horrific scene. It's just tragic. The poor lady did not deserve to die this
00:34way. The most significant part of this was surveillance video. We switched our gears from
00:41baseline fire to criminal investigation. They're not telling us what you've done. It did shake
00:48people's sense of fear of that there's somebody that could actually do something like that
00:52to someone. She gets caught in that fire, you get caught in that fire, you get out to see
00:57others. I honestly don't think there's any retribution for a person to do this to another person.
01:03This was absolutely a premeditated crime. She knew that if she didn't get away from him something
01:08bad at some point would happen.
01:31In the early hours of the morning on May 15, 2016, the local police department in Ben Salem,
01:41Pennsylvania receive a distressing 911 call from the Lincoln Motel.
01:46Hello?
01:54Is there a fire in the building?
01:58Yes.
01:58Okay, are you just looking at the hotel?
02:00Yes. We need you, but the guy is on fire in the room. He's on fire.
02:06No, 103.
02:07Ow, ow, hello. Everybody, ow. Everybody, ow.
02:10She's trapped. She's trapped, ma'am.
02:13A 911 call from the Lincoln Motel is not really that unusual. What is unusual is that sometimes
02:23these calls come in and you almost instantly know that it's a big job, it's something really
02:28important, and most officers just start going there automatically.
02:32The guy, the guy is in the, in the room?
02:37Well, I just heard him yelling, and then I had the, um, the, um, cleaning person open up
02:42the door, open up the door, and the band was on fire, and he's screaming.
02:45Okay. Is he out of the room, or is he still in the room?
02:47I don't know. I don't know, sir. I don't know.
02:53Upon our arrival, we were able to determine that there was a hotel fire in the front of the
02:57building. It was either room 103 or 104. By looking in the windows as we were trying to
03:02evacuate people out of the hotel, we were able to see from outside that a body was on fire
03:06in one of those rooms.
03:11It's a, uh, two-story motel. It's got about 20 rooms on the first floor and about 20 rooms
03:17on the second floor.
03:17The fire was contained to the first floor, but the smoke was banked down to the floor. You could
03:25not see your hand in front of your face, and there was numerous people having problems getting out.
03:29They were crawling out of the building. They couldn't see, and the firefighters went interior
03:34with a hose line and attempted to do search and rescue.
03:38We're just yelling and banging on doors, trying to get as many people as possible.
03:42They assisted numerous people out of the building, through windows and all through,
03:45through the hallway, and then they found the one, uh, subject deceased.
03:56Police say the fire was under control in about 30 minutes. One person was discovered dead inside
04:01the motel, and several people had to be rescued from the second floor. Police say some guests
04:05were taken to Aria Torresdale for smoke inhalation. One guest says he heard someone screaming for help
04:11as he made his way out of the building.
04:15We're coming into the back side of the Lincoln Motel. Room 103 is on the north side of the hotel,
04:23which is one of these rooms right here. I believe it's the third or fourth window in.
04:31When the fire occurred, this is the first access that people came to. This is where the fire
04:38company accessed some of the room broke the windows as the main office.
04:45At the time of the crime, it was motel. So I guess it's a hotel now, but it was always a motel.
04:55Once we determined that there was a body in a fire scene itself, it's automatically handled as if it's a crime scene.
05:03Whether we know that it's an accident or we don't right away, we don't take any chances of something
05:09that we didn't expect popping up on us. We like to handle it right off the bat as a crime scene
05:15and cord and everything off so we don't lose anything.
05:20The first task for responders at the scene is to try and identify this victim.
05:25When we start doing the crime scene, the problem was it was under debris.
05:34The walls had been on fire. The bedding was on fire. The fire company come in.
05:39You're talking thousands of gallons of water dumping into a scene.
05:44So we weren't able to 100% identify quickly, but when it came time to finding out who rented the room,
05:51the Lincoln Motel has always been a pretty cooperative place.
05:56We've never really had any issues with them when it came to crime.
05:59They've always been pretty helpful. They were very helpful with that.
06:03Fairly quickly, an officer to me was able to provide information that the room was registered to a female.
06:10The victim is identified as 46-year-old Melissa Bacon-Smith.
06:15During the investigation, we talked to many people that knew Melissa.
06:18She was described as a very hard-working lady. Everybody liked her. She had a daughter.
06:25She came to work early in the morning. She stayed a long tour, and she was sometimes with double shifts.
06:31And she was just a generally nice person. And everybody that came in contact with liked her.
06:38Police then continue their initial investigation into the fire,
06:42discovering troubling information about Melissa's final moments alive.
06:46We took a quick survey of the room where the origin of the fire was,
06:52took some quick photos to make sure that we documented, make sure nothing changed.
06:57And if something did change, we would know that it was changed.
07:00Then we start surveying the rest of the area to make sure that there wasn't anything residual going on
07:06that we weren't aware of right off the bat.
07:08The motel unit that was on fire, there was a lot of damage in that room.
07:13Our victim, however, was not in that room.
07:15Our victim was in a room across the hall, laying on the ground.
07:18There was no fire damage in that unit.
07:20There was a lot of smoke damage, a lot of heat damage, but there was no fire damage.
07:23For me, I know at that point in time, she was alive at the time of the fire.
07:31She left the room that she was in and she went across the hallway.
07:34I also found the bathtub running in room 103.
07:38So I know somebody turned that water on her.
07:41I was thinking that somebody was trying to put the fire out.
07:43It appears that she had went into the bathroom and tried to put herself out
07:48because the shower curtain was burnt.
07:51The flames on her body, the burns on her body, showed that everything was going up.
07:55More than likely, she was able to extinguish the flames, but the building was on fire.
08:00So not only did she put herself out, but everything around her was still on fire and superheated.
08:07Now, everybody's out of the hotel.
08:09She's in there still alone.
08:10We assume that she tries to leave, but she's so disoriented and you can't see
08:16that she basically just walks over into the room across the hall.
08:20And that's where she finally succumbs to her injuries and collapses right there.
08:26As police look into Melissa's death, two important questions arise.
08:31How did the fire start?
08:33And why was she the only person at the motel so severely burned?
08:37One of the big challenges we have with fires is it's very destructive.
08:45The first thing that has to take priority is the firefighting efforts to put out the fire
08:50to protect human life.
08:51And in a hotel or a motel, like this case, a motel where there's other occupants,
08:56you know, the firefighting efforts take priority.
08:58So already you're degrading evidence in order to try to save lives.
09:04When it comes to fingerprints or DNA, it's very difficult to collect these items
09:10and get the type of evidence that we're used to when there's no fire involved.
09:16But there was something about the fire at the Lincoln Motel that made investigators think
09:21this was no accident.
09:23We had a smell of gasoline coming from the room.
09:28You could smell the gasoline coming off her clothing.
09:33It's not normal to smell gasoline on someone.
09:35It'd be different if you were in an auto body shop or if you were in a warehouse.
09:40But in a motel at 2 a.m., it's not a normal smell.
09:43So this kind of leads us down the path that an accelerant was used.
09:48But who had used an accelerant to start the fire at the Lincoln Motel?
09:53And was Melissa Bacon Smith's death an accident or murder?
09:56I'm back here live at the Lincoln Motel.
10:06You can see a number of broken windows, lots of broken glass around from where firefighters
10:10had to enter the building this morning.
10:12Now, there are a number of businesses in the area, and Ben Salem police spent the morning
10:15visiting each of them to see if they have any surveillance video that may help in the investigation.
10:20There are cameras here at the motel, and they are taking that footage into evidence as well.
10:24We are still waiting to learn the identity of both the victim.
10:28All the news media outlets were there while we were, you know, investigating the fire itself.
10:34You've got to remember, this isn't a major thoroughfare.
10:37This is a six-lane highway, three lanes each direction.
10:40When you shut that down, I don't care whether it's in the middle of the day, on a weekday,
10:46or even a weekend, when you shut down one side of that 100%, you're backing traffic up for miles.
10:53So it caused a lot of attention for all kinds of reasons.
11:01Investigators at the scene of the Lincoln Motel fire are determining whether arson was the cause of the blaze.
11:07I need to eliminate electrical.
11:13I've got to eliminate cooking.
11:15I've got to eliminate natural causes like lightning.
11:18We have to eliminate all other causes before we mix up an arson.
11:21I requested that we would have the arson canine dog, accelerant dog from Philadelphia, come up to the scene and go through the scene to see if there's any accelerants used.
11:32So the canine dog hit in two different locations, once in the room of origin and once where the victim's body was found.
11:41We collected the evidence.
11:43It was samples on the bed.
11:45It was samples off the victim's body.
11:47And it was samples adjacent to the bed.
11:49It does not take long for investigators to identify the cause of the fire.
11:58An accelerant was used.
12:00And this was an actual arson homicide.
12:02So the first thing we did was try to contain everybody that was on scene.
12:13Make sure nobody left.
12:14Because you never know who saw what.
12:17In this particular case, the forensics was an important part.
12:20But it wasn't the only part.
12:22As a matter of fact, the most significant part in this was surveillance video.
12:27There was no surveillance video inside of the room, but the hallway in the motel had surveillance video.
12:37One of the employees at the Lincoln Motel gives investigators a strong lead.
12:42Very quickly on into the investigation, we were aware that one person in particular had left the room just before the fire.
12:52So we knew that it was a black male and he was wearing certain type of clothing.
12:58We had an eyewitness that said they saw this person leaving the scene.
13:03The housekeeper for the motel saw him walking out of the room and just leave.
13:07Had no conversation with him.
13:09Didn't say anything.
13:11A short time later, minutes, she hears some screaming.
13:14She smells some smoke.
13:15And the room was on fire.
13:17The fire was in room 103 right off the bat.
13:21So we knew that it was in that room and not any other rooms.
13:25Help! Help! Help!
13:28Guys, the guy is on fire in the room.
13:31He's on fire.
13:32Help! Help! Hello!
13:34Everybody help! Everybody help!
13:36We were able to determine exact time that the individual left the room, entered the room, rented the room.
13:45As police uncover new details about this possible suspect, they receive another 911 call.
13:52The Bucks County 911 system received a phone call from a female that reported herself to be the sister of the possible actor.
14:01She reported that her brother had just called her and told her that he had just set his girlfriend on fire.
14:09She identified her brother as being Kevin Small.
14:11I was able to get a hold of her phone number, call her back, and speak to her.
14:19And she had told me that very shortly between her first phone call and me calling her, that he had called her again.
14:28And he told her that he was walking down U.S. Route 1.
14:33I was able to get on to the radio, tell other patrol officers there that our suspect may be walking southbound on Route 1.
14:45Ben Salem Police begin a hunt for Kevin Small, the man they now believe to be the center of their investigation into the death of Melissa Bacon-Smith.
14:55I kept canvassed in the area, Route 1 up and down, stopping anyone I could find, or looking for anything suspicious, anyone running, anyone trying to hide.
15:04They noticed a male trying to hide from police cars.
15:10He had the smell of gasoline coming from him, and the skin was slipping and kind of hanging off of his arms.
15:17They start to realize that this is the guy.
15:25This is U.S. Route 1.
15:36This is the road that the suspect, Kevin Small, fled on afterwards.
15:41He walked down the northbound lanes, which are currently traveling southbound.
15:45And he walked down the northbound lanes on the shoulder, from what we believe, all the way down to this approaching red light right here.
15:54It doesn't take long for officers to receive a report of a confirmed sighting of Kevin Small.
15:59Philadelphia Police Department had a suspect fit in a description of Kevin Small at the intersection of Bybury and Route 1.
16:09I petitioned with my sergeant, since we had everything under control on scene, that I leave with my canine, and I take another officer with me.
16:17And we go to investigate this possible sighting and maybe question him.
16:21As I was coming northbound, back to the fire, I noticed a male figure hiding behind a bus structure as I passed or got close.
16:32To me, it looked like he was trying to hide from me, evade me.
16:36I couldn't barely see him because he was on the other side of a rectangular bus structure.
16:41I knew he was on the phone.
16:42I heard him talking to someone, and it was just me and him in the area.
16:45I was unable to figure out if he was armed or a threat.
16:48I didn't even know who he was at first.
16:49As soon as I identified myself, this male figure stopped.
16:52He froze.
16:53He didn't want to turn around, but he didn't want to take off running.
16:55He didn't know what to do.
16:56It was just time really slowed down for me, and I think of him as well.
17:01They started talking to him, and when they started talking to him, they noticed that he had severe second-degree burns on both of his arms up to his elbows.
17:12How many people are walking down the highway at 1 o'clock, 1.30 in the morning with severe burns on their arms?
17:17While they were trying to determine his name and his identity, he was on the phone.
17:25For some reason or another, he handed our patrol officer the phone.
17:28I spoke with a female on the phone and asked who she was.
17:32She identified herself.
17:33I didn't catch the name, but I did ask who she was talking to on the other line, and she identified Kevin Small.
17:39At that point in time, he was actually on parole from some previous drug crimes, and where he was found on the corner was across the street from where he was living.
17:58It's a secured facility for parolees, which allowed him to work during the day, and in the evenings, he had to come back and be locked down.
18:10Before police questioned Kevin Small about the fire and Melissa's death, they bring him to the hospital to have his burns treated.
18:21We went to Jefferson Tarr Stale Hospital.
18:24We were there for two or three hours with him, so they treated his burns on his right hand.
18:31Thankfully, his injuries weren't that severe that it didn't require him to stay overnight.
18:36He's in custody at this point, so we didn't Mirandize him, so I couldn't question Mr. Small, neither could Officer Crozier.
18:42But he did make several statements throughout the course of those couple hours we were there.
18:46He mentioned that he really screwed up this time.
18:48This wasn't his first rodeo, that he's been in and out of jail.
18:51His mom's going to be extremely disappointed, and that he really f***ed up this time.
18:57Details of Kevin Small's relationship with Melissa Bacon-Smith also began to emerge.
19:05During the investigation, we were able to talk to family members, co-workers of Melissa Bacon,
19:10and we found out that Kevin and Melissa had been together for several months,
19:17but her co-workers had let us know that there had always been an underlying current of control on Kevin's part,
19:29to the point where even her friends were telling her,
19:33you've got to get away from this guy.
19:34So she realized that, and that, from what we understand,
19:38and told by her family and co-workers, that she was, that was what she was trying to do.
19:43She was trying to get away from it.
19:46The night that this all transpired, they were seen in the bar of a neighboring motel,
19:53and Melissa had gotten up to play pool.
19:57Well, while she was playing pool, they said,
19:59you could see that Kevin was very visually, visibly annoyed that she was not paying attention to him.
20:07He was a control freak, and that he wanted her to do what he wanted her to do,
20:12when he wanted her to do.
20:13He wanted her to be his, and that was it.
20:16Police just wrapped up their investigation here at the Lincoln Motel.
20:32They were here for almost eight hours after they were called here for this deadly fire.
20:37Police say one person is dead and one person is in custody.
20:40No word yet on any charges for that suspect.
20:43Investigators spent the morning trying to piece together how this fire started.
20:49Myself and Bucks County Detective Martin McDonough interviewed him at police headquarters.
20:55How did that fire start?
20:57I don't know how the fire started.
20:59I think you do.
21:02Straight up.
21:04How did it start?
21:06I don't remember.
21:07You're taking baby steps, and that's good.
21:19You got to tell us what happened in that room.
21:23During the interview, he expressed to us that how much he loved her,
21:29and that she wasn't taking him serious,
21:32and that he was trying to make a nice night for her and him to enjoy each other's company.
21:39And everything that he did, he did wrong.
21:42He initially wanted to get a hotel room at a different hotel where they would normally go.
21:48They had apparently been seeing each other for several months.
21:51He waited too long and wasn't able to get a room there.
21:53They were all sold out.
21:54So he got one at the Lincoln Motel.
22:01Now, I finally get a light where it's not in her face.
22:04But that light, this making noise.
22:07That bathroom light.
22:08I said, oh, look at this.
22:09It's not in her face now.
22:11Nothing's bothering me now.
22:13Okay.
22:14But this is just for the vet.
22:16Oh, my God.
22:18No, he's going to ask me to get mad about that.
22:20And he said that just everything he did just got on her nerves,
22:25and he was trying everything he could to make her happy,
22:28and it just wasn't working.
22:29I don't know, hey, listen, I don't know what I'm talking about or whatever.
22:34I'm just saying, you know people lose it, man.
22:37You know, I don't care what, you know, whether, what, I have it or whatever.
22:41It doesn't matter.
22:42You can lose it, man.
22:43You know what I'm saying?
22:45What the f***?
22:45I ain't saying, I ain't saying I'm f***ing perfect.
22:47I know I ain't perfect.
22:49What the f***?
22:49I don't f*** like this.
22:51You lost it now, didn't you?
22:54I think I did.
22:56And when you lost it, what did you do?
22:57I f*** you, f*** you, I'm f*** like black f***, man.
23:03What happened when you lost it?
23:04I don't know.
23:06You know what I'm saying?
23:07I do not remember a specific thing.
23:11Now...
23:11But when she's, when she's saying, Kevin...
23:15Right, when she says...
23:16What is she doing?
23:17Where is she?
23:18I remember I'm leaving out of this room.
23:21I'm just leaving.
23:22She on the bed?
23:23She on the floor?
23:24She's standing next?
23:24Where is she?
23:25She's standing there.
23:25She's standing by the...
23:27By the door.
23:28By the door.
23:29I remember her...
23:30I'm like, I'm f***ing...
23:31I'm just going.
23:33You know what I'm saying?
23:34I remember going through the door.
23:36When you go to the door, and I remember her just going like this.
23:38They say, hey, my name.
23:40You know what I mean?
23:41And I remember...
23:43I just don't want to talk to her.
23:45You know what I mean?
23:45I just don't f*** care.
23:47I'm tired of having her waiting on me.
23:50Well, when it gets bad, you leave her.
23:53She didn't want to talk to her.
23:54So we were able to determine the timeline of the crime by the video surveillance.
24:02So the motel surveillance show him leaving the parking lot.
24:06There were our outside cameras.
24:08We were able to track his movements in the parking lot.
24:11We were able to find that he had gone across the street.
24:14There is a large convenience store slash gas station at Wawa, which is a big staple here in the Philadelphia area.
24:22We were able to go to the Wawa food store, and they were more than cooperative with us and let us look through all their surveillance.
24:29We see him come into the store, buy some sandwiches, leave, go back over to the motel.
24:40We know he leaves the motel again.
24:47We see him go back in the direction of the Wawa.
24:50We look at the Wawa.
24:51We see him in there again.
24:55From what we can gather, while he's at the Wawa the second time, it kind of strikes him.
25:01He goes, he leaves, but turns around, comes right back in, and he gets a coffee cup.
25:06And you can see him on the video with the coffee cup in his hand.
25:10And he walks up, and he walks up to the attendant at the register.
25:14And you see him pointing out into the gas station area and pointing at a, I assume, telling her what gas pump he wants.
25:23Pays her a dollar's worth for gasoline.
25:26Walks out.
25:28You can see him at the gas pump.
25:29He can't see him pumping it in, but then he walks away.
25:33And the surveillance of the motel, he walks back, and he has the cup, a Wawa coffee cup in his hand.
25:46What did you use to start the fire?
25:49I don't remember starting the fire.
25:51You told your mom you started the fire.
25:53I don't remember talking about that, ****, yet.
25:56I don't remember talking about that.
25:57And why would I start the fire in the room that I'm in with her?
26:02There's no one that says to me.
26:03That's what we're trying to find out.
26:04But you didn't leave her behind this.
26:06She grabbed you, and you leave her behind.
26:08She touched my arm.
26:10With the remote fire, and you left her home.
26:12What happened?
26:13I don't remember sitting in the room.
26:14What are you going to say to her when she says to you, why'd you leave me there?
26:18I'm not going to say nothing to her.
26:20Because I know she doesn't say nothing to me, besides bad things.
26:24He did not know that she had already passed away from her burns.
26:28No.
26:31What the ****?
26:34What about her?
26:37Where's she at?
26:37Take a sip of water.
26:38She didn't make it.
26:49She died.
26:50She died.
26:51She died.
26:51She died.
27:05I've been straight up.
27:06We've been straight up with you from the very beginning.
27:08We're showing you what we even know.
27:13Tell us about your mistakes.
27:18Oh, ****.
27:18Kevin Small, pretty cold throughout the whole thing.
27:39There were times where he was crying, showing concern.
27:44We don't know if he was crying because he got caught.
27:46He was crying because he was really concerned.
27:50He did seem to have a genuine reaction when we did eventually tell him in the interview
27:57that she had died.
27:59He did cry, put his head down.
28:01It took a little while, a couple minutes to compose himself.
28:04But I don't know if he totally grasped what was in front of him at this point.
28:11She's stuck in the fire, isn't she?
28:24Isn't she?
28:25I don't know.
28:27I don't know.
28:29Well, what did the rooms burn?
28:30I don't know what the **** burn, but I know when she grabbed my arm, touched my arm,
28:36and said my name, and she knew me.
28:39It starts on her.
28:40I'm doing like this.
28:41Like, you know, just like you come to reality.
28:44You know what I mean?
28:45You saw her burning?
28:46No, I felt the heat when she started burning.
28:51I was like, ah, ****.
28:52It's like everything just, you come out of everything, you're not drunk.
28:55You're not there with the whole ****.
28:57You know what I'm saying?
28:58I just **** touch my arm.
28:59You just said it.
29:00You're not drunk when that happens.
29:01I'm not paying attention.
29:02I mean, it's like...
29:03So what do you see when she touches your hand?
29:06I just see her **** hand on my arm and her hair to see my name.
29:09And where are you standing?
29:10I don't know.
29:11I'm in the room somewhere.
29:12I know ****.
29:13I know I ****.
29:14It took us quite a while of talking to him and convincing him, you know, this is the woman
29:20that you love and this is what happened.
29:23You know what happened.
29:25He kept trying to tell us he didn't know.
29:27He didn't know.
29:28He didn't know.
29:29Well, we explained to him, you were the only two people in the room.
29:32You're the only person who knows.
29:33You're not telling us what you know.
29:36You know that you lost it.
29:40And something happened in that room and a fire breaks up out in that room.
29:45Yeah.
29:47She gets caught in that fire.
29:49You get caught in that fire.
29:50You get out and she doesn't.
29:52And she has to get...
29:53I have to get out when I feel that...
29:55I have to get out.
29:56When I feel that ****, when I feel her hand touch my arm or her hand or whatever,
30:03and she said my name, it's like, it's like, I don't know how you ****.
30:08But all you care about is you at that point.
30:10Yeah.
30:11I'm like, I got to get out of here.
30:13That's it.
30:14And it's self-preservation at that point.
30:17Right.
30:17I mean, I love her behind.
30:18I love this.
30:20I thought I love this girl.
30:21I feel like I do.
30:23But when she touched it, I felt that sting and that burn from my arm.
30:27Nothing mattered there.
30:28I got to go.
30:30That's all that mattered at that point.
30:31I got to go.
30:33Kevin never took active steps to hide anything that he did.
30:39But what he did do was what most people do when, once they're caught and in an interview,
30:45he tried to minimize any **** involvement he had.
30:48He tried to deflect how it happened.
30:51He tried, came up with a story that he didn't do it.
30:55It was an accident.
30:57She, uh, she had a **** on me.
31:00I think she was smoking my mouth.
31:01She said, oh, I'm smoking my mouth.
31:03It's ****.
31:05I just smacked the ****.
31:07Smacked the cup?
31:08Yeah.
31:08I got a ****.
31:09She had a lit cigarette.
31:11I mean, my mouth.
31:12Okay.
31:13You know what I mean?
31:13I'm like ****.
31:14And eventually, as we chipped away and chipped away at him, he eventually admitted to, he
31:22called it splashing.
31:23We believe it to be throwing the gasoline on her.
31:27He blames that she had a cigarette in her mouth that caused it to go off.
31:32We believe that he ignited it, whether it be a lighter or more than likely a lighter.
31:37And once it went up, he realized what had happened and he got out of there.
31:42No, I mean, I just, you know, I just, I just, I just, I just lost it.
31:49Hmm?
31:49****, I heard it ever.
31:51I'm ****, eating up, bro.
31:53What's one of that kind of ****?
31:54What, what, what caught on fire?
31:56I, I don't, when I ****, I was just, I was all, I was all, I'm leaving.
32:01I'm done.
32:01I'm just leaving.
32:02I'm for this money's a waste of ****.
32:04I'm just leaving.
32:05And next thing you know, I swear, man, ****, last thing I remember was her touch my arm,
32:10say my name.
32:10I don't believe Mr. Smalls story that it was an accident.
32:14I believe that he intentionally set her on fire.
32:17The science just doesn't work out.
32:18A cigarette being smoked and gasoline thrown onto you, the way he said he's knocked it over
32:23with his hand, would not ignite that fire.
32:26It just would not ignite that fire.
32:27Different examinations have taken place over time, and I've been a part of a few of them.
32:31If you take a cigarette and you have a cup of gasoline and you put the cigarette, a lit cigarette,
32:37into a cup of gasoline, it will go out.
32:39It will not catch on fire.
32:40Right?
32:41So if you have that same cigarette, and it's on fire, and you hold it over the cup of gasoline
32:46where their vapors are coming up, and you hold it there for a few seconds, you can get
32:49a fire to ignite.
32:50But just throwing it at it, it would not ignite.
32:53Most of the time, it's going to go out.
32:54But what was on fire?
32:55Oh, you know that she was on fire, and it wasn't she?
32:58I don't know.
32:59I was leaving.
33:01What was on fire?
33:03Behind me was on fire.
33:04Because I'm going to the doors of where you're at.
33:06And the back was right there.
33:09There was a thing right here.
33:13You know, we've never been to that joint before.
33:14And then we walked that way.
33:17The wind goes back that way.
33:18The thing with the heater, all that shit.
33:20And the bed right there, a pretty big bed right there.
33:23So I smacked the shit.
33:25Where did you smack it from?
33:27Where was the cup?
33:28The TV or the TV?
33:30The TV was there.
33:31Okay.
33:35All that I had on the table.
33:36Was it a cup or a water bottle?
33:37It was a cup.
33:41The bed was over there.
33:42I don't know where the **** there was.
33:44You know what I mean?
33:45By this point, I'm just in a whole ****.
33:47You're a fan.
33:48In a rage.
33:49Just, just, just ****.
33:51Just, I'm not even there.
33:53You know what I mean?
33:53I mean, I thought I was, I was **** drunk.
33:55That's no excuse.
33:56I'm just saying.
33:57I was drunk.
33:58So, like you said before, decision-making.
34:00I'm just not thinking.
34:01He would never admit that he went and actually purchased the gasoline.
34:06We told him we had him on film.
34:08Standing there, pumping the gas into, he just, I don't remember.
34:13I don't remember.
34:14He never would admit walking over and purchasing the gasoline.
34:19While he acknowledged that it was there and it was on her and all that, he never once acknowledged
34:28that he remembered being the one to actually go get the gasoline.
34:33He was trying to downplay what he did to make it look a little bit better.
34:37If he accidentally spilled gasoline on her, why didn't he help her?
34:40Why didn't he call 911?
34:41Why didn't he activate the fire alarm?
34:43She actually grabbed his arms and he pushed her away and didn't even help her.
34:46That is something that sticks with you because she was alive and I just know how much pain
34:49she was going through.
34:50The housekeeper was saying she was screaming.
34:52The housekeeper saw the fire in the bed.
34:55It's just tragic.
34:56The poor lady did not deserve to die this way.
35:02I determined it's an arson, intentionally set.
35:06We talked together.
35:07We realized he was the only subject besides the victim that was in the room.
35:11His burns, his demeanor, his phone calls to his family, the video evidence.
35:17We put it all together and we both agreed, the police department, the fire department,
35:20that Kevin Small was the actor that set this fire.
35:23Walter, I spoke with the victim's daughter tonight.
35:34She told me that Melissa Bacon-Smith was a loving mother of four, a grandmother of seven
35:39who will be deeply missed.
35:41She was staying here at this motel with her boyfriend when, for some reason, in his words,
35:46he lost it.
35:51What happened?
35:52Tell us what happened.
35:53Yeah, Kevin, what happened in that hotel?
35:54All right, you got to step back, folks.
35:55Lost it, that's all.
35:56You lost it.
35:57Step back.
35:58And what happened?
35:58What'd you do?
35:59Step back.
35:59Bad thing, man.
36:00What's that?
36:01Bad thing.
36:02It was pretty outrageous, the idea that someone would pour gasoline on someone and then set
36:09them on fire.
36:11Kind of resonated with people to the fact of how cruel and how inhumane that could be.
36:18Everybody's burnt their fingers somehow or burnt their tongue drinking coffee, just the sheer
36:27thought that you would be set on fire with gasoline and the majority of your body would
36:32be on fire at any given time.
36:34People related with the idea of how painful and agonizing that that could be.
36:40The lead charge was criminal homicide.
36:42And then he was charged with multiple counts of recklessly endangering other people, which
36:48is he got one count for everybody that was in the motel.
36:51So 40, 45 counts of that, arson, criminal mischief, all the residual crimes that would
36:58come with setting something on fire.
37:00This crime was absolutely premeditated.
37:03This subject had to go to Wawa, pay for his gas, get a cup, fill the cup with gasoline,
37:11cross back across the street, walk back into the room, and within an hour, he walks out and
37:19the place goes up in flames and there's a woman dead.
37:22This was absolutely a premeditated crime.
37:26I mean, the evidence is overwhelming.
37:28I don't think you get more chilling evidence seeing that there was Wawa video surveillance of
37:34him obtaining cups of gasoline.
37:37And of course, I know he tried to lend some alternative theory that it was, you know,
37:41flung on the victim when she was smoking.
37:43And each step taken, when you could have avoided taking those steps, are just indications of
37:50the intent, the specific intent to kill that you need for first degree murder.
37:54Outstanding police work from everyone involved, the initial responding officers, the detectives,
37:58the follow through, you know, the canine officer, everyone.
38:01Pennsylvania still has the death penalty.
38:07And if it warrants it, we go for it.
38:11Whenever you have a trial of any crime, the family members and the victims always have to
38:16relive that crime.
38:18And they'd have to sit through a court case where a defense attorney would try to make
38:22it look like this guy didn't do it.
38:24If the family is okay with, you know, allowing these people to plead guilty to a first degree
38:31murder charge, which would give them life without parole, and we know they're never getting
38:37out, we think it's a win all the way around.
38:39Because who wants to victimize your victim or your family members over again?
38:44Nobody wants them to put anybody through that.
38:46There's already been one crime.
38:47It'd be another crime to force them to go through that again.
38:49Faced with insurmountable evidence, Kevin Small pleads guilty to all charges against
38:55them to avoid the death penalty.
38:59That sentence, I mean, life plus 68 to 134 years is, you know, the layered certainty that
39:08this family has that this defendant will die within the four walls of that state correctional
39:12facility.
39:14You're never going to be able to bring back this poor victim's life.
39:17You'll never fully bring the peace that this family deserves.
39:21But at least if they have the sense of justice and knowing that no one will ever be harmed
39:25by this man again, then I know our job was done.
39:29As he was hauled away after court, Smalls apologized to his victim's family and told reporters jail
39:36is where he belongs.
39:37This was a very difficult case to investigate for our detectives and for the prosecutors and
39:53for the firefighters, because when you think about how this happened, when you think about
40:00a person taking a cup of gasoline, throwing it on another human being and lighting them
40:08on fire, that's horrific.
40:10Let alone what you have to see after the fire is put out, the damage, the destruction at
40:16the hotel, the person lying on the ground dead from burns and from smoke inhalation.
40:22It's a horrific scene.
40:24This affects investigators no matter how seasoned they are.
40:28Of all the ones that I have been involved in, this was one that I never would have thought
40:36to have someone intentionally pour gasoline on someone and set them on fire.
40:41It leaves a mark and you remember it for the rest of your life.
40:45There was 40-some guests in that hotel when the fire happened.
40:48We're lucky we don't have more people that were dead.
40:50I know being a firefighter for 23 years and being burnt on the job, having burns, it's
40:56a lot of pain.
40:57For this young lady to have to live through that, even if it was only for a short period
41:01of time, she went through a lot, a lot of pain.
41:03And it does touch it.
41:04She did not die in that bed.
41:05She was awake.
41:06She got up.
41:07She tried to go to the bathroom and put the fire out.
41:09She tried to get outside.
41:11She didn't make it.
41:12She wound up falling dead in the room across the hallway.
41:16But she experienced a lot of pain and I really do feel for her.
41:20To know the victim grabbed onto him and he pushed her away, that hits hard, right?
41:26That's a human life.
41:27It's just, it's sad, but I'm glad we were able to do our job and bring closure to the
41:32family.
41:33In speaking about justice for the family, I mean, if it was served, that's a loaded question
41:36in my opinion.
41:37I don't think justice is ever served for someone who commits such a heinous crime against another
41:42human being.
41:43I honestly don't think there's any retribution for a person to do this to another person.
41:46So I don't think justice is ever going to be served.
41:49Justice will be served when he meets his maker.
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