NEW SUSPECT AT LARGE

Suspect Free,

2nd At Large

In Fatal Fire

By LIBBY CUDMORE

ONEONTA Surveillance video taken the night of the Dec. 29 fire that killed former Oneonta firefighter John Heller shows another person, not Terrence Truitt, at the scene of the fatal fire.
And so, District Attorney John Muehl directed that Truitt, 32, who was arrested Jan. 2 and charged with the fatal arson, be released Monday, Feb. 11, from Otsego County Jail.
“We have the suspect on tape,” said Muehl. “There’s always been a suspicion that someone else was involved, and the new evidence corroborated that other suspect.”
The name of the new suspect was not released, but the D.A. said, “Our investigation has revealed additional evidence that ethically requires him to be released. We believe that by the time Terrence was on the scene, the fire had already been started.”
During the felony hearing on Friday, Jan. 4, Michael Syron, a taxi driver, told City Judge Lucy Bernier that Truitt flagged him down at 4 a.m. the morning of the fire in the Friendly’s parking lot next to the house.
“My brother might be in the house,” Syron said Truitt told him.
Truitt told detectives that he went to the Speedway mart next to Main Street Baptist Church to call firefighters, then went back to the house but found it “too smoky” to enter.
Oneonta Police Chief Doug Brenner said that Truitt’s brother, Gabriel Truitt, is still a “person of interest,” in the case, but that they have been unable to locate him at this time.
Muehl said that accelerant was found on the door and the floor outside of apartment #3 at 5 Walling Ave. The tenant, Heather Engler, is believed to have been “an acquaintance” of Gabriel and was known to Terrence.
However, an open window on the third floor, where Heller and his fiancée, Amber Roe, lived, drew the fire to the third floor. “The fire just followed the draft right up the stairs,” said Muehl.
Heller’s four nephews, Donovan, 9, Maddox, 7, Macall, 5 and Rawley, 2, were staying with him that night, and he got them to safety before collapsing from smoke inhalation. Heller’s body was found by firefighters near the same window he had helped his fiancée and nephews escape through, and he was pronounced dead at Fox Hospital. His death was declared a homicide after investigators determined that the fire was set intentionally.
When the other suspect is identified, Muehl said, a grand jury will be convened. Should the grand jury indict, a warrant will be issued for the suspect’s arrest.