Sheriff pressing to ID 3 killed in house fire

HAMLETSBURG, Ill. — Pope County Sheriff Jerry Suits says it’s rare that three people die in an entire year from accidental causes in his part of southern Illinois. Losing three people in a house fire during the latest holiday weekend is proving trying and tragic.

Suits and other investigators are still trying to identify three people found dead early New Year’s Day in the ruins of their trailer home in the unincorporated community of Hamletsburg along the Ohio River.

Suits says he believes he knows who the victims are, but he isn’t offering names until their identification is finalized, perhaps relying on dental records.

The cause of the fire hasn’t yet been released, but Suits for now doesn’t consider the origin to be suspicious.