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Apr 22, 2008 3:04 pm US/Central
Police Say Collin Co. Fire Set To Cover Murder
COLLIN COUNTY (CBS 11 News) ―
It began as an investigation into what was believed to be a deadly house fire. Now Collin County officials say a 54-year-old woman was murdered by her husband.
On April 19th the Princeton Fire Department responded to a house fire in the nearby Town of Altoga, about 40 miles North of Dallas. When firefighters arrived they found intense flames coming from the bedroom.
Hours after the fire Collin County Fire Marshal Steve Deffibaugh told CBS 11 News, "I really had to think at that time this is going to be a body recovery, because of the fire itself; because of the thick smoke that we were already experiencing coming out of the house."
After the fire was extinguished, rescuers found the body of Mary Sue Doyle. While at the scene, fire investigators also detected a chemical odor within the house that was consistent with the smell of a flammable liquid or accelerant.
It was first thought that the mother, and new grandmother, died of smoke inhalation after falling asleep with a candle burning, but during a subsequent autopsy, Collin County Medical Examiner Dr. William Rohr discovered that Mary Doyle had a gunshot wound to the head.
Initially the woman's husband, Steven Michael Doyle, had told fire investigators that his wife was in the bedroom and he had fallen asleep on the sofa after watching a basketball game on television.
On Tuesday Deffibaugh told CBS 11 News that Mr. Doyle had shed no tears and showed no remorse at the fire scene, but that officials had thought he was in shock. Mr. Doyle voluntarily went to the Collin County Sheriff's Office on April 21st to speak to investigators and it was then that the 56-year-old admitted to having been upset with his wife and shooting her in the back of the head with a 22-caliber handgun.
While speaking to officials Steven Doyle also admitted that after shooting his wife he poured gasoline around the house and set it on fire. A neighbor braved the smoke and flames to save the man and prevented what Mr. Doyle says he intended to be a murder-suicide.
In an attempt to save the couple, other neighbors doused the house with water hoses, as glass shattered all around them. "There was four or five of us, putting it on, doing our best to get him out and he didn't want to get out," said neighbor Wally Scalf. "I mean, we done it then, I guess we'd have done it again. If it happens we'd do it again." Carolyn Watkins attended church with Mary Doyle and described the woman as always being happy and encouraging.
Steven Doyle faces murder and arson charges and is being held in the Collin County Detention Facility on $750,000 bond.
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