By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
In shadows created by burnt trees and low cloud cover Wednesday afternoon, Tamara Burgos and friends and family were at 29235 Ketterhagen Road, gathering plants and flowers
Burgos said that her family plans to transplant those, which were originally planted by her mother, Kimberly, at the former family home – which was leveled by a fire and explosion on May 14.
It is all Burgos has left of Howe, her biological mother. She said that the fire investigation team identified her mother from a small tissue sample.
“If it’s my mother, give me something to bury,” Burgos said.
The Racine County Sheriff’s Department announced Wednesday that it believes Howe, her son, Nicholas Chaulkin, and her boyfriend, Craig Lambert, had perished May 14, in a murder-suicide perpetrated by Lambert. Those events culminated in a spectacular fire and explosion that reduced the home to splinters.
According to a news release issued by the Sheriff’s Office, a medical examination showed that Chaulkin had suffered a gunshot wound to the back of his head, and was dead before the fire because there was no evidence of smoke in his lungs.
“…Autopsy results did reveal the presence of smoke in Craig Lambert’s lungs, which is consistent with him being alive after the fire began,” the release stated.
The bodies of Lambert and Chaulkin were found the day after the explosion, and identified through dental and DNA records.
After a week of searching by investigators, other human remains collected from the site were later identified as Howe. “The injuries sustained by Lambert and Howe in the fire were so severe that the Medical Examiners Office was unable to determine the exact manner of death,” the release stated.
While the exact cause of the fire could not be determined due to the level of destruction, the release states “…evidence at the scene indicated the intentional removal of an LP gas line in the basement allowing the home to fill will gas and explode upon introduction to an ignition source.”
“The sad and unfortunately reality is Kimberly Howe and her son are both victims of the ultimate act of domestic violence,” Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling wrote in a text correspondence Wednesday.
The Women’s Resource Center of Racine was scheduled to hold a vigil Thursday night at 5:30 p.m. at Echo Park in Burlington, with special activities planned for teens.
Difficult for daughter
Burgos absorbed what the Sheriff’s Department released Wednesday – and came to a far different conclusion.
“They never found her teeth,” Burgos said of Howe. “They never found the jewelry on her body.
“The second body that they’re claiming is my brother? They even stated to the family that the DNA did not match,” she added. “It can’t be my brother if the DNA doesn’t match.”
However, Schmaling said his department reacted properly according to the evidence, as did the Wisconsin Crime Lab.
“These are human remains that were found,” the sheriff said. “Those are our three victims, and there’s no disputing that.
“The extent and the scope of the search was massive,” he added.
Burgos claimed there were clues that her mother and her brother didn’t return to the house following a domestic incident days prior to the fire and explosion.
She said that Lambert loved her mother deeply, and would have been incapable of killing her mother, much less reducing her remains to the point where investigators only found a small tissue sample.
But she also said that Lambert had confronted Howe about another man kissing her on May 11. The fight turned physical, Burgos explained, and her mother and brother left the house the morning of May 12.
Burgos said she spoke to her mother via text message the day before the fire, and felt her mother was nervous about returning to the home.
That, she said, would have kept Kimberly Howe from returning without someone to protect her.
Lambert’s daughter, Kayla, declined to comment Wednesday.
A complicated mess
The reality of domestic abuse, however, is rarely that simple, said Cherie Griffin of the Women’s Resource Center in Racine.
“Victims’ understanding of risk … is often underestimated,” she explained. “Many times victims know there is danger, but they may not be able to accurately predict when something will become lethal.
“Any form of abuse is always dangerous,” Griffin said.
She added that when women try to leave – or in this case, remove their abuser from the home – things often go wrong.
“It’s always the most dangerous when someone tries to leave,” Griffin said.
Griffin urged that anyone attempting to leave an abusive situation contact the Women’s Resource Center for help in exiting the relationship safely. She directed people to a 24-hour advocate line available at (262) 633-3233.
Burgos said that might have been exactly what her mother was trying to do. She said that there were remains of a third dog in the home, and that while the sheriff’s department has declared one of the bodies to be her brother, she thinks someone else accompanied her mother into the home that day.
“She would have had somebody come home with her,” Burgos said.
It’s why, she said, she believes her mother may still be alive – and in hiding.
“If she’s still alive, she needs to repair herself before she can cope with that,” said Burgos. “I just want her to reach out.
“I don’t expect her to come home,” Burgos added. “I don’t expect her to leave whatever place she feels safe. I just want her to reach out.”
Schmaling made it clear Wednesday, though, that he believes the evidence supports the information released.
“During most investigations, we typically develop theories immediately,” he wrote in a text. “Sometimes those areas are proven with evidence and sometimes they are not.
“We base our comments on evidence and the totality of the investigation,” Schmaling added. “We have done nothing short of a thorough investigation.
“There is no doubt we have the remains of those three individuals.”
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