The Murder Of
Mackenzie Branham
Presented By
Bonnie M. Wells
Still No Arrest 5 Years
After Arson Fire Killed Girl
By Mike Bowersock / April 22, 2011
WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE, Ohio --
April 8, 2006, will be a date Donald Branham will always remember.
It was the day his daughter Mackenzie was killed in an arson house fire. She was 8 years old.
Mackenzie Branham was killed in an arson fire five years ago, and authorities still don't have any suspects.
The father was cleared as a suspect early on in the investigation.
But years later, there is still no suspect or reason why the house was set on fire.
Donald said he doesn't know how the fire started and that investigators have never shared with him what information they have.
"I don't want this to happen to somebody else's family. I mean there is a murderer out there. There is somebody out there that did this crime and how do you know they're not going to do it again to somebody else's family?" Donald said.
Friday at 4 p.m., a gone-but-not-forgotten ceremony is scheduled at Mackenzie's grave in Jeffersonville .
She would have been 14 this year.
"I was just shocked. Things like that don't happen in Jeffersonville . I know that's what people will always say, but that's true," said Gerrie Wagner, a local business owner.
The Ohio State Fire marshal's office said the arson is an open investigation and officials aren't commenting on it.
"Go home sit around your dinner table and pick one child at your dinner table that you could be without the rest of your life and you'll know how I feel," Donald said.
This page posted: 4/23/11 // BMW
