A tragic incident unfolded last Saturday morning as the Dalton Police Department launched an investigation into a house fire that resulted in one death and ended with a suspect killed on a Kentucky highway. Responders to the 300 block of South Grimes Street in Dalton were met with the aftermath of a blaze around 5:45 a.m. and found a badly burned body inside, the identity of whom is pending confirmation by the medical examiner, according to Fox 5 Atlanta.
Following a woman's call to the police reporting a chilling confession by her brother, Dalton officers were quick to link the brother as a suspect in the arson, though the suspect had fled in the victim's car, only to meet his end after authorities in Kentucky pursued him in a high-speed chase that resulted in a fatal crash, WSB-TV reports.
The suspect, identified as Ryan M. Ebler, 30, of Martinsville, Indiana, by the Franklin County, Kentucky, Coroner's Office, but not officially confirmed by Dalton police as their suspect, had been driving in Kentucky when state police attempted to pull over the stolen vehicle, leading to the aforementioned chase just south of Lexington, and resulting in Ebler's death after losing control of the car.
Toxic fumes within the South Grimes Street home prevented investigators from entering until roughly noon last Saturday, and the Dalton Police said the identity of the victim in the house fire is being withheld until next of kin is notified, with both sources indicating a careful approach is being taken in the ongoing investigation into the arson and the devastating sequence of events that followed.
