Homicide ruled in deaths of mother and her 2 sons

Lena Cross died of multiple stab wounds; smoke inhalation killed her children.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
GIRARD -- Trumbull County Coroner Dr. Ted Soboslay has ruled the deaths of Lena Cross and her children, Mason Cross and Christian Pizzulo, as homicides.
Dr. Soboslay ruled that Cross, 22, died of multiple stab wounds, and her young sons died of smoke inhalation in the fire that tore through their duplex at 413 Dearborn St. on Sept. 12.
City firefighters found all three in the home. The children were found upstairs in their beds. Their mother was found after the fire had been extinguished, lying on a couch in the downstairs front room.
Girard police have treated this case as a homicide from the beginning, said Police Chief Frank Bigowsky.
He said the department is continuing to investigate the crime with help from the Trumbull County Prosecutor Office's Homicide Task Force, which includes members of the Hubbard Township, Warren and Liberty police departments, and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation.
In a statement Wednesday, Bigowsky said the investigation is "progressing in a positive direction and we expect a successful conclusion."
Family speaks out
The family of Cross and her sons had this comment: "The knowledge that there exists a person that can take young innocent lives so cruelly weighs heavily upon us. We can never enjoy our babies again, and our lives will never be the same.
"We pray that the person or persons who inflicted this pain on our family never gets the opportunity to rip apart another family's existence. Please pray with us that justice will be served."
Immediately after the fire, Bigowsky said officers collected a number of items from the house, but he declined to say what they were.
He said then that investigating the fire was made more difficult because the fire consumed much of the living room where Lena Cross was found.
At the time, officials thought the fire started in that room.