May 21, 2012
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) --- Esther Toepfer didn't go home on Monday. Instead she returned to a crime scene.
Saturday night, a fire started at her Morningside Drive home. She managed to get out with only some minor burns on her hands. Her mother walked through the fire barefoot and was treated for burns on her feet.
But it's how the fire started that has fire investigators hard at work.
We met Toepfer at her home Monday morning, she told us that late Saturday her mother heard someone trying to get into her house.
When Esther tried to get out of her front door the knob burned her hand.
She panicked and tried to get her mother to follow her out of the house, but when she was halfway down her front walk way she noticed her mother was not behind her.
She turned around and the house burst into flames.
"Whoever (it was) had a layout of the house," Toepfer said. "And they knew my grand daughter lived with me. And for someone ... to me that's just evil."
Fire investigators tell us they were suspicious of the cause of the fire within minutes of arriving.
Toepfer is shocked that something like that could have happened, and is now fearful that the person who tried to take her life in that fire, is still out there.
"What bothers me the most is that someone would dislike me so much that they would ... my grand daughter and mother would be sacrificed just to get me." Toepfer told us.
Fire officials in Knoxville tell us they have a person of interest but they haven't made any arrests yet.
