Man, Woman IDed After South Jersey Murder-Suicide, House Fire

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, NJ — Authorities released the identities Monday of the man and the woman whose bodies were recovered from the rubble of a Washington Township house fire earlier this month.

But the motive of the man, who killed the woman and then himself, remains a mystery.

Daniel Steele, 59, fatally shot Michelle Whiting, 45, before killing himself in an explosive fire on May 11, authorities said. The incident, which destroyed Steele's house on 13 Tranquility Ct., is being investigated as a murder-suicide.

The Gloucester County Medical Examiner's Office had been working through last week to confirm each person's identity. However, their identities were previously revealed by people who knew Whiting and Steele.

The pair had an ongoing relationship with some gaps in it, a spokesperson for the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office told Patch last week. But authorities were still working to determine Steele's motive as of Monday.

"We're continuing to talk to people and work through the case to see if there's anything that we can definitively identify as an impetus for what happened," said spokesperson Tom Gilbert, who is also the GCPO's chief of detectives.

Steele, who lived in the house, fatally shot Whiting, whose body was found on a bed in the bedroom, authorities said last week. Then, Steele started a fast-moving fire that killed him.

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Authorities do not know how much time passed between the shooting and the start of the fire. However, Steele's body showed signs of smoke inhalation while Whiting's didn't, which shed light into the order of events, Gilbert told Patch.

Detectives found a fire accelerant in the home, along with a gas line that had been tampered with to enable the unrestricted flow of natural gas inside.

The powerful fire caused an explosion that rocked the neighborhood. But the explosion seems to have only partially destroyed the house, and the neighboring community is fortunate it didn't have a bigger impact, Gilbert said.

But the fire was so intense that the house "basically melted," Gilbert said.

Steele's ex-girlfriend, Nicole Ruiz, told NBC10 Philadelphia that hours before the fire, Steele dropped off his dog and some dog food at Ruiz's home. Inside the bag, Ruiz found money.

Ruiz received an email from Steele just minutes before the fire broke out on Tranquility Court, she told NBC10.

"I am a terrible person," read part of the email, according to NBC10. "By the time you read this I won't be alive. Billy loves you more than anyone I’ve ever seen. Take care of yourself. Love, me."