Eight people lived in the three-story house on Leighton Avenue in Rochester, New York. Two tenants lived on the lower floor, and six others shared a two-floor upstairs apartment. On the night of January 10, 2016, the first-floor tenants weren’t home, and Mary Royal was on the other side of Rochester, visiting her daughter. When Mary Royal pulled up to her home on Leighton Avenue that cold January night, she had no idea she was walking into a nightmare.
According to the Rochester Police Department, Mary Royal returned to her home on Leighton Avenue to discover that something wasn’t right. She could feel it before she saw it. The front door was wide open, and as she walked into her apartment, the smell of smoke was in the air. Mary immediately called 911.
The Rochester Department of Firefighters arrived, extinguished the flames, and made a grim discovery in the attic that was more horrifying than anyone could have imagined.…