GAITHERSBURG, Md. — Shortly after fire engines roared up to a Gaithersburg, Maryland, town home on March 29, firefighters found the body of an older man. Now, Montgomery County police believe he died under suspicious circumstances.
Capt. Darren Franke with the Montgomery County Police Major Crimes Division says 63-year-old Steven Skalabrin’s death is being investigated as a homicide.
Skalabrin had to be identified by his fingerprints after the “intense fire” was extinguished, Franke told reporters in front of the charred home on Windjammer Way.
Two other people who rented rooms in the home were able to escape the flames and directed firefighters to where their roommate, Skalabrin, might be in the basement.
Investigators have not identified any people of interest in the case, and would not go into specifics about why the death is considered suspicious.
“Fire Rescue has worked with us to shore up the town home so we can get in and work on determining a cause of the fire and also further look at the scene to see what kind of evidence we can find,” Franke said.
The fire marshal has yet to determine how and where the fire started.
