Tracy Raynard Bush, 46, is charged with capital murder. At his probable cause hearing this morning Bush admitted to waiting for his mother to leave for church before going to the northeast Houston house and starting the blaze. He allegedly said he wasn't sorry for the incident.
Relatives tell Eyewitness News that Tracy Reynard Bush didn't live in the home, but said he had made threatening statements to family members in the past.
Investigators say Bush killed 5-year-old Brastaya Peace when he set the family's home on fire. Family members thought the little girl was at church with her grandmother when the fire broke out Sunday morning.
The three adults who were inside of the home at the time were able to make it out, but then they heard Brastaya screaming for help.
Katrina Miller, 27, ran back in the house to try and reach the little cousin, but the flames were too intense and she had to jump out of a second floor window. Miller suffered second and third degree burns and remains in a hospital.
There was little anyone, including firefighters, could do to save the child.
"That girl is the light of the world. Here smile, her voice, she would just make you laugh with just two words," said family member Anthony Miller. "She could change your whole mood."
"She meant the world to me and I couldn't get in to get her," added family member Terry Harris.
Investigators have not said how he set the fire or why.
Slideshow archive | ABC13 wireless | Help solve crimes
