A former Bloomfield man was arrested over the weekend on charges that he set an apartment fire that killed three in 1993, Pittsburgh police said Tuesday.
On Saturday, Pittsburgh cold case detectives J.R. Smith and Scott Evans arrested Daniel T. Carnevale, 42, formerly of Bloomfield, during a traffic stop in Placerville, Calif. He is charged with setting the fire at the Columbia/Regal apartment buildings on Taylor Street in Bloomfield.
One tenant, Christopher Stahlman, 23, died after he jumped from a third-story window to escape the blaze, which destroyed the building.
Resident Florence Lyczko, 63, died of smoke inhalation in her third-floor apartment. The body of Anita Emory, 31, who also died of smoke inhalation, was found the next day in the basement under tons of debris from the collapse of the roof and third floor, according to a police affidavit.
The six-alarm fire started in a basement apartment, police said. A five-gallon container of lacquer thinner was in the basement of the building a day before the fire. The day after, it was found empty in a doorway leading to the courtyard, according to the affidavit.
Police credited a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review column on the unsolved case with prompting a witness to come forward.
"It's good to solve a case after this long. It brings closure to the families," Smith said.
Carnevale, who left Bloomfield shortly after the Jan. 17, 1993, fire and had been living in Modesto, Calif., recently moved to Placerville. Detectives arrested him during a traffic stop with the help of local police.
The witness, Sandi Evans, 41, of Bloomfield, told detectives that when she read the cold case column April 10 in the Tribune-Review, she was "surprised that Daniel Carnevale wasn't already arrested for (the fire)," according to the affidavit.
"I don't have any words. I have goose bumps," she said. "We thought the case had gone cold again. It's about time. I watched that building burn and knew there were people inside, and it's something I'll never forget."
Carnevale is being held in the El Dorado County Jail on three counts of homicide and one count each of arson and burglary as he awaits extradition back to Pittsburgh. He could face additional charges because the fire badly burned another apartment resident and injured a city firefighter, one of about 80 who responded, police said.
Investigators have not determined a motive for the fire.
Evans and her brother saw Carnevale walking away from the apartment building minutes before it burst into flames.
Keys to the basement door where the empty container was found, along with blank checks that had been locked in the basement, were discovered minutes after the fire started. A man walking toward the fire to watch found the items a few blocks away, according to the affidavit.
Two months after the fire, Carnevale told detectives he stole the checks and other items from tenants' mailboxes several months earlier and denied setting the fire, according to the affidavit.
Carnevale agreed to take a polygraph test, but he left the state shortly after. Carnevale called Pittsburgh detectives in May 1993 and said he had been sentenced to three years in California's San Quentin prison for auto theft. He said the car had been taken in a burglary on Baum Boulevard in Pittsburgh. It isn't clear why police did not interview Carnevale again.
Detectives interviewed Evans and her brother, who asked not to be named, after the column appeared.
During that interview they told police they saw Carnevale walk out of the courtyard minutes before the fire started. Evans' brother continued home and soon heard sirens. He looked out of his window to see "the glow of a fire," walked back to the building and saw Carnevale in a crowd watching the fire, the affidavit states.
Police last night were trying to locate relatives of the victims.
