The victims' family rushed to the scene with countless questions. The more they learned from investigators, the more evident their pain became. Investigators say the fire started around 9:30 Friday morning. Crews contained it to one bedroom.
It was in that bedroom that they found the bodies of a woman, and what they say appears to be a young child. Family believes those victims are Liliana Micolta and her daughter Lily Londono.
"The bodies are burned," said Sgt. Robert Spurgeon with the Harris County Sheriff's Office Homicide Division. "That's why we can't determine for sure what the cause of death is at this point."
During their questioning, Harris County homicide detectives learned the woman who lived here drove to her mother's Richmond home early Friday morning and dropped off paperwork, including Social Security cards and birth certificates.
"She didn't say anything, why she was doing anything, when she left," Sgt. Spurgeon said.
Thirty minutes later, the mother -- who found it odd -- drove to the home with another daughter, saw smoke billowing from the house and called 911.
"The mother attempted to get into the house. The fire was too hot. They couldn't get in," Sgt. Spurgeon said.
Detectives are working this case as a murder-suicide.
A neighbor, who has a daughter the same age as the girl who lived in the house, rushed home from work to piece together what she could, before having to explain it to her own 8-year-old.
"It's going to be hard when she gets home from school because I really don't know what I'm going to tell her," Janet Vallatares said. "It's shocking. I never thought something like this could happen, you know?"
Detectives will not confirm that the fire caused these deaths. It's still unclear what caused the fire, how these two people died, and why.
