SoCal fire killed 2 of their kids. Prosecutors say they are to blame

The flames were everywhere.

Smoke poured from the windows of the three-bedroom manufactured home as flames licked up the structure. Three cars were burning, and the carport area, where officials believe the blaze started, was completely engulfed.

Even the large pine tree that had shaded the home on Knight Drive where Stacey Hales and Adam Keenan had lived with their three daughters for years was ablaze — casting an orange glow that at 4:45 a.m. could be seen for miles across Murrieta.

And although Hales and Keenan managed to escape the home with one of their daughters, 11-year-old Ashley, the girl’s twin sister, Abby, and their older sister, 12-year-old Emma, did not make it out, and neither did the family dogs. The siblings, who succumbed to smoke inhalation, were found in the living room about seven feet apart.

“There was so much heat coming out of the building,” Murrieta Fire Chief Bernard Molloy told The Times this month. “One of our fire captains tried to get in through a window and he has a melted helmet as a result.”

Authorities say the fire started in the carport after Hales, 46, failed to turn off a propane tank to a stove she was using to make tortilla chips and left it on overnight. She had used the stove inside the home until she started a fire there months earlier, and Keenan told her “she could kill somebody one day” if she wasn’t more careful, according to a declaration attached to an affidavit filed by police after the fatal incident.

Nearly three months after the Dec. 20 fire killed their daughters, Hales and Keenan are now facing felony charges in their deaths.

Hales was charged March 2 with two counts of arson causing great bodily injury, three counts of willful child cruelty, cruelty to animals, arson and a misdemeanor for allegedly being under the influence of a controlled substance, according to Riverside County Superior Court records.

Keenan was charged with three felony counts of willful child cruelty and a misdemeanor for allegedly being under the influence of a controlled substance, court records show.

Hales has not entered a plea and is out on $160,000 bail. She did not respond to a phone call seeking comment. Keenan, who remains in custody in lieu of $160,000 bail, pleaded not guilty to all charges.

“This is a very tragic and complicated case,” Deputy Public Defender Aaron Kurtzer, who is representing Keenan, said in a statement to The Times. “We are now in the process of gathering all the facts and look forward to presenting a vigorous defense on behalf of Mr. Keenan.”

A scorched teddy bear at the scene of the Murrieta house fire.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

According to the law enforcement declaration, Hales couldn’t recall whether she had turned off the burner and told authorities she hadn’t turned off the propane tank before she went to sleep the night of the fire.

She had started preparing meals on the stove outside beneath a wooden carport after an earlier fire in the kitchen of the home caused damage, Officer E. Velazquez wrote in the document.

When investigators looked inside the home, they found that it did not have working smoke alarms and the main exit was partially blocked by dog crates and other items, according to the document. Keenan and his daughter escaped the fire through a window.

Hales exited the home alone, and when she tried to go back inside, she was met with such intense heat and smoke that it singed her eyes, her brother Scott Nadler told KTLA.

“Stacy opened the front door and cleared the way for Abby to get out and she turned around and nobody was there,” Nadler said. “She couldn’t get back inside.”

The declaration alleges that both Hales and Keenan had methamphetamine and cannabis in their systems. Hales “admitted to daily methamphetamine use including the day prior to the fire” and Keenan “admitted to regular methamphetamine use including around the time of the fire.”

A melted children’s slide lies among the rubble at the scene of the Murrieta house fire.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

In many ways, public records show, Hales’ life has been marked by challenges leading up to the deadly blaze.

Murrieta Police Capt. Jeremy Durrant said police had responded to the home on Knight Drive several times dating back to 2013 for domestic violence calls, child protective services assists and probation searches.

Durrant declined to provide more information about the calls.

In 2013, Hales was charged with a misdemeanor count of endangering a child after authorities said she fell asleep while watching her 3-year-old nephew and the boy wandered away from a home in Menifee.

The boy, wearing only red shorts, left through an unlocked door and was found at about 2:30 p.m. roughly half a mile away by a school crossing guard, according to a declaration in support of an arrest warrant.

In 2015, she reached a plea deal with prosecutors and was sentenced to a work release program and four years’ probation, according to the district attorney’s office.

In 2022, Hales’ oldest child, Breden, was killed in a car accident, according to a GoFundMe established to support the family.

“The pain is unimaginable,” Jessica Hales, who identified herself as a member of Hales’ extended family, wrote in a social media post. The post has since been deleted.

“As of now, Stacey is severely injured and has lost her eyesight, among other burn injuries. She lost her kids, her pets, her home, her car, her everything. It is just heartbreaking,” it said.