Flora neighbors react as FBI comes knocking about deadly unsolved arson

FLORA, Ind. — Several people in Flora got an unexpected knock on their doors Monday morning from FBI investigators who are back in the small town to try and dig up more information on a fire that killed four girls in 2016.

On the corner of East Columbia Street is a vacant lot that was once the home of 11-year-old Keyana Davis, 9-year-old Keyara Phillips, 7-year-old Kerriele McDonald and 5-year-old Kionnie Welch. The girls died in a house fire there on Nov. 21, 2016. Investigators say it was arson.

Nearly nine years later, no arrests have been made and no suspects have been publicly named. The FBI knocking on doors in the neighborhood on Monday was the first public show of the investigation in years.

FOX59/CBS4 was in Flora on Monday as the FBI went door to door. We spotted agents on multiple front porches talking with neighbors.

Flora resident Matt Parsley had two agents stop by his house.

”They wanted to know if I had heard anything, knew anything, knew anyone who might know something,” Parsley said.

He said that was the basis of the questions, adding that nothing unusual stuck out to him. Parsley lives just a few houses down from where the four girls died in 2016.

“At the time, I was working a lot and the only thing I saw was the emergency lights down there and I didn’t know what happened till I stopped and got gas that morning and the attendant at the gas station told me the girls had died,” Parsley said.

Since then, the unsolved case of who lit the fire has hung over the small town.

”Why would anyone want to kill four little girls?” Parsley asked. “What would be your motivation to kill innocent kids?”

Kathy Clendening said she is close friends with the girl’s aunt. She still remembers the big smiles on each of the girls’ faces. 

”Sometimes I just think about the times you would go past and the girls would just wave at all the traffic,” Clendening said.

Clendening has been looking into the case herself for years. She talked to the FBI in 2021, and again in 2024, but has largely been frustrated with what she has perceived as a lack of work being put into the case.

Now, she is relieved to see agents back out in Flora, giving new life to the investigation.

”Thank god, thank god someone, finally, finally believes these girls deserve justice,” she said.

The FBI, along with Indiana State Police, declined interviews. An FBI spokesperson said the agency is now elevating efforts and has investigators who are new to the case and looking over evidence with fresh eyes.

Clendening is hoping this could mean a break in the case soon.

”I feel like they may know something and they just need one person in this community to speak out,” Clendening said.

In small towns like Flora, they say everyone knows everyone – folks also think someone knows who set that fire. 

”There’s no doubt, somebody has to,” said Parsley.

The State Fire Marshal is still offering a $5,000 reward for any information that leads to an arrest of the people or person who set the fire. FOX59/CBS4 reached out to Gaylin Rose, the mother of the four girls who died in the fire, but did not hear back.