A 59-year-old father-of-three is believed to have blown up his own home in a Pittsburgh suburb on his daughter’s wedding day in an apparent suicide.
The house in Edgewood, Pennsylvania, exploded just before 2.30pm Saturday. Police recovered a body from the rubble hours later and said it belonged to the male homeowner, but did not publicly identify him.
Property records obtained by DailyMail.com indicate that the home was owned by John Evans.
According to social media, one of Evans’ three daughters, Lauren, got married the same day. Police said most of the family was at the wedding when the explosion occurred.
Another one of Evans’ daughters, Ashlee, posted on Facebook hours after the explosion asking people to respect the family’s privacy.
John Evans, a 59-year-old father-of-three, is believed to have blown up his own home in a Pittsburgh suburb on his daughter’s wedding day in an apparent suicide on Saturday. Evans is pictured above with his wife Shawna
The house in Edgewood, Pennsylvania, exploded just before 2.30pm Saturday. Police recovered a body from the rubble hours later and said it was likely that of the male homeowner but did not publicly identify him. Property records obtained by DailyMail.com indicate that the home was owned by John Evans
According to social media, one of Evans’ three daughters, Lauren (pictured), got married that same day. Police said most of the family was at the wedding at the time of the explosion, while neighbors reported seeing the homeowner outside the house minutes before the blast
Another one of Evans’ daughters, Ashlee, posted on Facebook hours after the explosion asking people to respect the family’s privacy
A wedding registry and post by the church where the ceremony took place, Catholic Community of the East End of Pittsburgh, confirmed Lauren’s wedding to Derek Drnevich on Sunday.
Neighbors said they saw the homeowner standing outside of his house at 318 Garland Street shortly before an explosion tore through the structure, shaking several properties in the area.
For several hours the man remained unaccounted for as emergency crews contained the fire that broke out after the blast.
The home ultimately collapsed and officials brought in heavy equipment to sift through the wreckage, where they found the body.
His death was ruled a suicide.
‘This gentleman apparently had some personal issues and we’ve had information from neighbors that would indicate that there’s a great potential here that he would have blown the house up,’ Edgewood Police Chief Robert Payne told reporters, per KDKA.
‘It looks like he may have been able to disconnect the gas line itself in the basement of the house and of course it wouldn’t take much but a spark to explode the house after that.’
Payne noted that officers had been called to the home for mental health-related domestic issues in the past.
‘We’ve been here before, we know who this gentleman is, and I’ll leave it at that,’ Payne said.
Emergency crews responded to a 911 call about the explosion just before 2.30pm Saturday
Neighbors said they saw the homeowner standing outside of his house just before the blast
Edgewood Police Chief Robert Payne (above) told reporters: ‘This gentleman apparently had some personal issues and we’ve had information from neighbors that would indicate that there’s a great potential here that he would have blown the house up’
The street was evacuated on Saturday night as a bomb squad was brought in to investigate the homeowner’s car.
He had apparently left his cellphone on the vehicle’s windshield, ‘which is kind of odd, and so that troubles us’, Payne had said earlier in the day.
Several neighbors said their homes shook when the explosion went off and they ran out to see what had happened.
‘We came outside to see what was going on, and the house was in flames — still standing — but in flames,’ Donna Antolovich told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
‘Three to five minutes before the house blew up, the owner was standing in front of it. After that, nobody could find him.’
Another resident of the Antolovich house, Nicole, said: ‘I was devastated. I’ve been here my whole life. I’ve known them my whole life. Their daughter was getting married today and they were supposed to be at a wedding.’
Another neighbor, Dann Laudermilch, said he was working a few houses away when the explosion shook his home ‘fairly violently’.
He went outside where he saw another neighbor, Susan Irons, trying to get the attention of anyone inside the home by yelling, but no one responded to her.
‘I would say about 60 to 90 seconds after getting out here, the house just collapsed in one large movement with a lot of sound to it,’ Laudermilch told the Post-Gazette.
‘By that time it was fully in flames. It went up in flames remarkably fast. I thought it would take longer to burn, but it was like a minute and a half — it was crazy.’
Payne said the only injury reported was an Edgewood police office who is believed to have broken his wrist while assisting fire crews.
A home next to the blast site was also damaged. Neighbors said it had just been sold and a young family was due to move in any day.
- If you are in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741-741.
- For confidential support, call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local branch. See www.samaritans.org for details.
- For confidential support in Australia LIFELINE: 13 11 14 www.lifeline.org.au or Kids Helpline 1800 55 1800
The home at 318 Garland St is seen before the explosion in an undated Google street view
The home collapsed and officials brought in heavy equipment to sift through the wreckage
The man’s body was found in the rubble and his death was ruled a suicide
The explosion sparked a massive law enforcement response. Recovery crews remained at the scene for several hours afterward containing the flames and surveying the wreckage