MANHATTAN — Police in Stamford, Conn., have turned over the vast majority of their investigation into the deadly Christmas Day fire that claimed five members of Madonna Badger’s family to prosecutors, according to a published report.
The Daily Easton reports that the investigation is ongoing, but the amount of information they have gathered so far is so large, cops wanted to give State's Attorney David Cohen time to begin reviewing the documents.
Stamford Police Capt. Richard Conklin said that the documents handed over to prosecutors represent about 90 percent of the investigation.
The tragic fire at the center of their inquiry ripped through the former Manhattan ad exec’s home in Stamford on Christmas Day last year. Her three daughters—Lily, 9, and 7-year-old twins Grace and Sarah—were killed in the fire along with her parents, but Badger managed to escape with her boyfriend and contractor Michael Borcina.
The initial investigation revealed that the fire was sparked by fireplace embers, which Borcina removed because the girls were worried that Santa would get burned on his way down the chimney.
Investigators believe the embers were then placed in an entranceway of the house, starting the fire.
Police were brought into the probe back in January to assist fire marshals and to determine if any criminal action took place and how similar fires could be prevented, Conklin said.
No one has been charged.
Badger and her estranged husband, Matthew Badger, mourned their daughters at a funeral service on the Upper East Side in early January.
"My girls are in my heart, and that is where they live now,” the grieving mother said during the service. “They live in me.”
