2 women, nine-year-old boy found dead in burning home; missing husband suspected
MALBAR, Fla. – A missing man is suspected in the deaths of two women and a boy who were found dead in a burning home Sunday in Florida, according to authorities.
Brevard County Sheriff's Office spokesman Tod Goodyear told Crimesider that after being called to the scene of a house fire on Sunday, police found the bodies of three people. The bodies were so badly burned after the fire that the medical examiner has yet to positively identify the victims, but based on physical characteristics investigators believe they are Sebastian Meachum, 9, his mother Chrissy Hughes, 39, and her sister, Linda Woods, 39.
Hughes and the boy lived in the home with Hughes' husband, Tony Hughes, 39, who is currently missing.
Goodyear told CBS affiliate WKMG that the couple were apparently having "marital problems."
Goodyear said neighbors told investigators that on the morning of the fire they saw a truck with a boat attached to it leaving the residence. Soon after, the truck – which was registered to the Hughes' residence - was found at a nearby landing with the engine running and the boat gone.
According to Goodyear, witnesses told police they saw a man putting the boat into the water Sunday morning. That afternoon, authorities found the boat, which was also registered at the Hughes' residence, abandoned and running in circles in the water. Goodyear said blood was found on the boat.
Authorities have searched some nearby shoreline but not yet found Hughes.
Goodyear told Crimesider that the Hughes' moved to the residence in 2014 and that police had never before had contact with the family.
Police are currently working the deaths of the three people as homicides and consider Hughes a missing person.
