Six people got hurt in the explosion that took place in Plano on July 19. Since then, authorities stated it may have been intentional and evidence has surfaced pointing to a suicide attempt.
New information has come to light showing that the police were called in for a welfare check at that Plano home just two days before it was destroyed in the explosion, as The Dallas Morning News reports.
What are the details?
The house that exploded on the afternoon of July 19 was a single-story building located in the 4400 block of Cleveland Drive. The terrible incident reduced the house to a pile of rubble, and it severely injured the person who was living there and five residents from the house next door, as the news outlet points out.
Other houses on each side of the building were damaged, debris was scattered everywhere in the neighborhood and many windows got smashed. The explosion could be felt from a mile away and residents living close by likened the sound of the blast to that of an airstrike or a truck slamming into a building.
Neighbors initially thought the house had been struck by lightning in a passing storm. Fire investigators then said that the blast was the result of an isolated gas leak. Two days after the terrible incident, Plano police said the explosion “may have been intentional.” Authorities also added it was an isolated incident and there was no threat to the rest of the community.
Joseph Kupfer, 57, the man who lives in the house, was critically injured in the blast. Jennifer and Philip Jagielski, 34 and 32, and their three kids were also hurt. They live in the home next door, to the west.
On Friday, Kupfer’s attorney, Scott J. Becker, said that his client’s condition hadn’t improved and that he was “still struggling through his injuries.” He didn’t comment on the official statement that the explosion may have been intentional or on the suicide attempt evidence found at the location.
How does the welfare check come into it?
A heavily redacted incident report obtained by the outlet shows that police crews had called in at that house on July 17, at about 1:20 a.m. The reason for the call was a welfare concern at Kupfer’s home. Officers stated that all lights were off at the house, and no one picked up the phone.
The incident was cleared a short while after 2 a.m. Multiple attempts to contact the resident had failed.
A department spokesman stated that the officer didn’t see anything suspicious at the location that could have justified entering the house. It was not revealed what prompted the reporting person to ask for the welfare check.
Police collected a cellphone, a DNA swab, two swabs from a water hose and found a “multi-page, handwritten note” several houses away from the explosion.
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