Not much is left at the home where Craig Lambert once lived with his girlfriend Kimberly Howe, 43, and her son Nicholas Chaulkin,17.
The daughters of Howe and Lambert say their parents were together so long they considered them married and each other family.
"She still loved my dad like a dad to her. And she knows I still love my step-mom like a mom to me," says Kayla Lambert, Craig Lambert's daughter.
That did not change when the Racine County Sheriff"s Office released a report saying investigators believe Craig Lambert was responsible for their deaths. The sheriff's office says Nicholas Chalkin was found shot in the back of the head, and died before the fire started. The teen never had any smoke in his lungs. Investigators say they found a handgun. They do not know the cause of Howe's death but were able to positively identify her remains through DNA.
The report says investigators believe Craig Lambert was alive when the fire started. He did have smoke in his lungs. It also says the home's LP gas line was removed allowing the home to fill with gas. The sheriff believes this all happened the same day Kimberly Howe was stopping by the home to make sure Craig Lambert was moving out.
"The release released today portrays him as a monster. My stepfather was not a monster," says Tamara Burgos, Kimberly Howe's daughter.
The incident is being called "a domestic situation." The sheriff says it is the ultimate act of domestic violence because three people are dead. But the daughters say Craig Lambert was never violent.
"He was never aggressive to my mom. He was never violent, he never had a temper. He was not that person," says Tamara Burgos.
Now they are hearing people call their father a murderer and they say ultimately they are the ones who lost everything.
"We're grieving, the whole family is grieving," says Kayla Lambert. "Now our family is torn apart by this and all the comments that people are making just make it so much worse."
The family says they still plan to hold all three funerals together. They are a family and plan to remain that way despite this tragedy.
