There will always be lingering questions about a fatal Gwinnett County fire in February 2016.
How did it start? And how did Brent Patterson make it out alive while his wife and two young daughters perished inside?
The truth will likely never be known, District Attorney Danny Porter said Friday.
"In the absence of further information or in the absence of further evidence, at this time we are going to have to close our investigation," Porter said during a press conference. "We do not have enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there is a crime that has been committed here."
On a blustery evening on Feb. 9, 2016, fire ripped through the Patterson family’s home on Pointer Ridge in Tucker. Patterson said he heard a strange noise and opened the front door as his home exploded.
Patterson said he yelled for his wife and daughters to get out of the house, but the flames were too intense for him to reach them. He also tried unsuccessfully to break windows in the home, he said.
"I hope to God they were asleep," Patterson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution the day after the blaze. "I don't know. I have to hope."
Kathy Patterson, 36, and daughters, Madelyn, 9, and Kayla, 12, all died in the fire — a tragedy that devastated the family’s community, church family and the girls’ teachers.
But it was inconsistencies in Brent Patterson’s account of what happened that prompted an in-depth investigation. In addition to the Gwinnett County fire investigators and the medical examiner, Porter consulted outside experts during the 15-month investigation.
“It all comes down to whether or not the fire could have begun the way Patterson described it,” Porter said. “There are a lot of questions but I’m just not sure we will ever have the answers.”
Patterson has not spoken publicly about the fire since the day after his family died. He has rebuilt his home on the same lot and moved back in.
Neighbors told Channel 2 Action News they would also like answers, but they know it’s not likely.
“Especially days like this the girls used to come over and play with the dog in the rain,” Carla Schechter said. “It’s definitely a little unsettling to know that we may never know what really happened.”
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