Authorities investigating remains found at fire linked to missing dad in northeast Harris Co. home

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- The Harris County Fire Marshal's Office spoke with ABC13 following the recovery of human remains at a northeast Harris County home linked to a missing father of four.

In August, Kelvin Newton disappeared the same day that the Villagrove Drive home he was staying in burned down.

Human remains were found inside the home on Saturday by someone who had purchased it.

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Newton's family told ABC13 they are unsure if the remains are his, or if they belong to someone else.

Newton's teenage daughter, Jasmine, said her father told her there was a body inside the home prior to the fire. She initially dismissed the comments because Newton battled addiction and was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Per protocol, authorities are investigating the fire as an arson and the recovery of remains as a homicide until they can prove otherwise.

The family told ABC13 they had contacted the Harris County Fire Marshal's Office several times, asking they search debris at the burn site for remains.

Harris County Fire Marshal's Office Chief of Investigations Mitchell Weston told ABC13 the office searched the property, but did not sift through debris for remains because they did not believe the home was occupied at the time of the fire. Weston said the office visited the home twice. An independent investigator also visited the home.

Weston said there was up to three feet of debris inside the home prior to the fire. Newton's family said he often became paranoid and barricaded himself inside the home.

"The fire department should have done a better job of listening to us and looking for that body because we wanted closure," Newton's son-in-law Angel Santiago said.

Weston told ABC13 that surveillance video collected from neighbors shows Newton leaving the home shortly before the fire. It does not show him return.

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One of Newton's daughters contacted the Fire Marshal's Office and said she believed her father may be connected to another arson in the area that happened after the August house fire. Several years prior, Newton had been arrested for an unrelated arson, though the charge was dismissed. Newton's daughter said an arrest in the recent case dispelled her theory that her father survived the house fire, and went on to set another. Still, Weston told ABC13 the tip further discouraged investigators from searching the site for remains - a process he said is time-consuming and costly.

"If we had any reason to believe that a person was inside a home or structure, we would put forth any effort necessary to locate them as we have in the past. We're humans too," Weston said.

Weston said it will take months to identify remains recovered inside the home.

Newton's family had once owned and lived inside the home. They had sold the home prior to the fire but said Newton refused to leave.

Harris County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Beall said Newton was set to be evicted the week of the fire.

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