Hi, crime junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. In 2023, a fire tore through a Chicago family home and killed everyone inside, a mother and her three kids. It seemed like an especially cruel way for them to go considering that the woman's husband, the kid's father, was a Chicago firefighter who was on

duty that night fulfilling his oath to protect and serve the city. That same community rallied

around the surviving family who had been torn apart by what seemed to be a terrible accident.

But not everyone believed it was an accident. Within weeks of the fire, someone emailed me

and told me to watch this case closely as it unfolded, because everything might not be what it seems.

Three years and one back-and-forth legal fight with the Chicago Police Department

later, what I'm going to share with you might make you agree that something isn't right here.

But I'll let you be the judge. This is the never-before-told story of the Day Stewart family housefire.

Music story of the Day-Stewart family housefire. It's shortly after 9 p.m. on March 7th, 2023, when a call for a multiple alarm fire comes through the radio at the Chicago Firehouse.

Firefighter Walter Sean Stewart, who everyone calls Sean, is on duty that night, and he recognizes the address coming through over the speaker.

2554 North Rutherford Avenue.

That's his house.

Now, his station is hearing the message over dispatch,

even though their unit isn't the one designated to respond.

But, I mean, if you think he's not going, you're out of your mind.

He rushes to the battalion chief, tells him that he has to leave,

and asks if he'll go with him.

And within minutes, the two are in the chief's SUV speeding across Chicago's Montclair neighborhood,

the chief behind the wheel and Sean staring at just this smoke rising in the distance.

The 20-minute drive probably took less if they had their emergency light on,

but it must have still felt like an eternity.

It didn't take responding engines long, though.

...