MOSCOW - Investigators continued to sift through ashes Thursday for what caused the fire at a rural Harvard home where an elderly woman suffered injuries and later died.
Rhonda Bunney, spokeswoman for the Latah County Sheriff's Office, said the fire at the home of Millard H. and Linda Strunk on Quartz Creek Road Tuesday night remained suspicious, but no evidence of arson has been found.
Authorities were looking for the Strunks' son, 56-year-old Dallas Strunk, as a "person of interest" in connection with the fire, Bunney said. Dallas Strunk was convicted three years ago of second-degree arson after being charged with starting four fires, including one at his parents' home, according to court records.
Linda Strunk, 88, died Wednesday morning at Seattle's Harborview Medical Center.
An arrest warrant was issued for Dallas Strunk on an alleged probation violation, according to records. Bunney said one of the conditions of Strunk's 10-year-probation sentence for the arson conviction was to tell authorities if he changed residences.
According to court records, a neighbor at Dallas Strunk's mobile home about a mile south of Moscow on U.S. Highway 95 saw him packing belongings into his vehicle prior to the fire. He was thought to be driving a silver 1987 Volvo with an Idaho license plate 1L87213. Dallas Strunk is approximately 6-feet, 1-inch tall and weighs 200 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes, according to a sheriff's office description.
After the arson charges were filed three years ago, Strunk was found a week later at a campsite between Deary and Bovill, according to records.
Bunney said the sheriff's office has received several tips since the fire Tuesday from people saying they saw Dallas Strunk in various places, perhaps driving a different vehicle, including a white pickup truck. Bunney said deputies have checked into all reports, but were not able to locate Dallas Strunk.
If evidence of arson is found at the Struck home, Bunney said, the search may be intensified.
More details about the fire were made public by Bunney. She said Millard Strunk, 88, apparently went outside the home to feed cats and when he returned the back porch was on fire. His wife was inside and couldn't get the latched front door open, witnesses said.
Millard Strunk and a passerby, Bunney said, eventually pried or jerked the front door open, found Linda Stunk and managed to get her out. Emergency crews found the woman lying outside the home in a blanket, Bunney said. She was transported to Gritman Medical Center in Moscow while fire crews battled the blaze. She was later transferred to Seattle.
The modest two-story house burned to the ground, as did several surrounding structures.
Anyone with information about where to find Dallas Strunk is asked to call the Latah County Sheriff's Office at 208-882-2216.
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Johnson may be contacted at deveryone@potlatch.com or (208) 883-0564.