DAYTON — A woman who has children with a man killed in a house fire earlier this month is speaking out.
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As reported on News Center 7 at 5:30, Enrique Mozo-Baxin, 46, died in a house fire on Grove Avenue on June 14. Investigators said someone intentionally set this house on fire.
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Rachel McCormick is the mother of Mozo-Baxin’s two children. She walked News Center 7’s Mason Fletcher through the damage.
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She said the people who set the house on fire were targeting her ex-boyfriend’s bedroom.
“Had a very kind heart. He loved his kids and his family very much. What was done to him was completely unfair,” McCormick said.
A sign posted in the front yard said there is a reward for information on who is responsible for this fire.
“He knew what it was like to be down on their luck, and he was trying to help them out,” McCormick said.
She added that Mozo-Baxin was renting out rooms in the house to help pay for rent.
Two of those people got aggressive with neighbors, who eventually said they didn’t feel safe.
Mozo-Baxin eventually asked these tenants to leave, according to McCormick.
“As soon as he tried to stand up for himself, they killed him,” McCormick said.
While the two men were still renting from Mozo-Baxin, one neighbor got a security camera.
McCormick said this camera caught several fights on video as Mozo-Baxin was asking them to leave.
Most of that video is with Dayton police and hasn’t been released to the public.
After they moved out, the neighbors captured video of the two men walking around the house.
McCormick said this happened several times.
“I believe that they came back here, and they fought with him that day and the day before, and that night they set the fire,” McCormick said.
She said the news broke her heart, especially since it happened so close to Father’s Day.
McCormick said she hated telling her children about what happened.
“They waited all day for their dad to call. They did not understand why he had not called. They called him over and over again. I didn’t have the heart to tell them until Monday,” she said.
She added that police are looking through the neighbor’s video, but have not found the former tenants.
News Center 7 will continue to follow this story.
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