Lester Holt

Thompson suspected arson, but had his work cut out to prove it.

No physical evidence had been collected from the fire scene.

And by 2010, there was no scene.

When I got involved, this is basically what I had to work with, an empty lot, no house, no structures.

With the lack of physical evidence, this is really coming down to who you're going to be able to get to talk to.

Yeah, it all came down to people, word of mouth.

The family handed over all the information they'd gathered, and Jessica told Thompson about something strange Delbert had said to her the night of the fire.

He was telling me how he just didn't understand.

And I said, you don't understand what?

Like how the fire started?

And he said, no, I just, I don't understand how John got out.

I put plexiglass so thick on those windows, and I cocked it up so much, a grown man couldn't have kicked those windows out.

Did you say, why would you do that?

No, I didn't ask him why.

I looked at him, and I said, well, be grateful that he did get out.

Yeah.

And he just looked at me, and he didn't say anything else.

You want to be hearing from a father, thank God he got out, not how did he get out.

The constable also met with Allison's friend, Keisha Ringland, who had a story about Delbert.

It was the holidays of 2007.