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UPDATED | Prosecutor: Victim in rape case died in South Side fire
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Map of Powers Way
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YOUNGSTOWN — A case involving a Green Township man charged with raping a 10-year-old girl was halted today because prosecutors said the victim died in today's early morning fire on the South Side.
However, police department Chief of Detectives Capt. Brad Blackburn told The Vindicator that so far there appears to be nothing criminal in the fire at 3631 Powers Way this morning that killed three people.
As of yet, a cause or point of origin for the blaze have not yet been determined, he said.
Robert Seman, 45, of West Calla Road, was indicted in March 2014 on four counts of rape, which carry maximum sentences of life in prison, and four counts of gross sexual imposition. (Here's that full story.)
A spokeswoman for Judge Maureen Sweeney did not give the victim's name but she did say the victim lived with her grandparents.
A neighbor was jolted awake this morning by an explosion and seconds later saw the burning house across the street, with firefighters arriving soon after that.
She later learned that three occupants died inside the house at 3631 Powers Way.
“My feet hit the floor, and I looked at the clock. It was 3:41,” she said.
At first, the retired nurse thought a vehicle had hit a utility pole because her lights were flickering.
“The fire was coming out of the basement, and by the time I got to my front door, which was about nine steps, the whole thing was gone,” she said of the house, which, by then was fully engulfed in flames.
“You couldn’t tell there was a house there,” she added.
The house was occupied by a middle-aged couple and their 9-year-old granddaughter, she said.
“They were good people. They got along fine, and they were in no trouble with anybody. They came over here in the winter and shoveled my driveway, and, in the fall, raked the leaves,” she said.
“The little girl was just the light of their lives,” she recalled.
Fire Chief John O’Neill said 30 firefighters and nearly all of the city’s firetrucks were on the scene of the blaze.
“It was fully involved. We had quite a bit of fire in the basement, so that’s the likely origin,” he said. Engine 9 arrived first at the scene.
“They had fire all through the house, top to bottom,” he added.
“The floors were giving way almost immediately upon entry,” O’Neill said
Fire Capt. Perry Harrison of Engine 9 was injured when he fell through the first floor into the basement and was taken to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital.
“He was banged up pretty bad, but I think he’ll be OK,” the chief said.
O’Neill said the cause was undetermined and firefighters did not know whether the house had any smoke detectors.
A spokeswoman for Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, who will preside over the trial, said no new trial date has been set.
The spokeswoman also said Seman is jailed without bond and that there will be a hearing on whether, and at what level and under what conditions, bond should be set for him. The date for that hearing has not been set.
The girl’s mother told police Seman had been abusing her daughter for several years, Goshen Township police said.
The county Children Services Board assisted in the investigation, and Seman’s two-year-old child was removed from his custody.
The 10-year-old victim was apparently a student at South Range Elementary School, where officials issued an alert to families that grief counselors would be available today and beginning at 7 a.m. Tuesday for her classmates.