Investigation into arson underway after woman found dead in home near 26th and Hadley
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Police are investigating after a woman was found dead inside a Milwaukee home after they say a man set fire to the house late Monday, Jan. 5.
Family identified the woman who died in the home near 26th and Hadley as 22-year-old Gladys Johnson. The family says Johnson was five months pregnant.
Gladys Johnson
Johnson's mother believes the father of her children killed her before setting the house on fire.
"I kept knocking on her door, everybody's knocking on her door, 'Gladys get up, get up.' It was like a silence. Couldn't hear nothing," said Michelle Johnson, victim's mother.
Michelle Johnson, Gladys Johnson's mother, thought it was strange she hadn't seen her daughter all day on Monday. She says Gladys was in her bedroom at her mom's house with the father of her children and their 3-year-old daughter, and he wouldn't let her in.
"I told him I'm finna[sic] call the police because you won't let me see my daughter, and you need to get out my house. That's when he opened the door, and got to hollering, and cussing me out, and throwing stuff, and he pointed a gun," said Johnson.
Johnson ran downstairs and then she smelled smoke.
"He set the room on fire while she was in the bed," said Johnson.
The man ran out of the house and Johnson went into the room where flames were in the closet and her daughter was dead in the bed with blood around her.
Arson near 26th and Hadley
"I just looked at her, and I just fell to my knees. The fireman was trying to get me out and I didn't want to leave. I couldn't leave my baby in there like that," Johnson said.
The Milwaukee Police Department says they arrested a 21-year-old man for arson. The family tells CBS 58 it's Gladys' ex and they think he killed her before starting the fire.
"She had told me once before that he tried to choke her, and that's when she moved back home," Johnson siad.
Johnson's family says her 3-year-old daughter is safe, but she was five months pregnant with a baby boy.
"He took two lives for no apparent reason, all because she said she didn't want to be with him anymore," said Latasha Triplett, Gladys' cousin.
Family hopes Gladys' ex faces serious consequences.
"That was my baby. He took my baby from me," Johnson said.
Officials say the investigation is ongoing.
The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner has not yet released the woman's cause of death.