House in fatal blaze had history of violence
Arson suspected in fire that killed two Sunday
As investigators yesterday zeroed in on arson as the cause of Sunday morning's South Boston fire in which two young sisters were killed, court records revealed a dysfunctional household in which violence was a regular intruder.
Police had been summoned to the row house at least twice in the last six months - once after the girls' mother, Anna Reisopoulos, said she was assaulted by the father of two of her children, and another time when a 26-year-old woman said she was assaulted by Reisopoulos.
Those documents are filled with descriptions of Reisopoulos getting kicked in the teeth, pulling another woman's hair, scratching a woman, threatening a teenage boy, and adults spitting in each other's faces.
Separately, authorities said that sometime before the fire, Reisopoulos was involved in a loud altercation with another woman.
Police last night made no arrests in the deaths of Acia Johnson, 14, and her sister, Sophia, 2, though one police official said investigators were honing in on a female suspect who was questioned Sunday night. Boston homicide detectives combed a third-floor apartment yesterday near Linskey-Barry Court in the West Broadway Housing Development, about a block from the scene of the fire. They emerged shortly after noon carrying paper bags that are used to collect evidence. Accelerant-sniffing dogs were unable to detect flammable substances in the apartment, according to two city officials briefed on the investigation. The officials said investigators are looking at the possibility that a Molotov cocktail ignited the blaze. Police officials declined to comment last night, citing the ongoing investigation.
The state Department of Social Services confirmed that it had investigated the family in the past but would not disclose any results of those reviews. The agency is investigating the welfare of the remaining child, Acia Johnson's 14-year-old twin, Raymond, said Alison Goodwin, a spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, which oversees DSS.
Within the troubled home, Acia and her little sister, Sophia, were very close, said neighbors and a school official who described Acia as always smiling and sometimes accompanied by Sophia after school. Their bodies were found huddled in a third-floor attic closet where the girls apparently tried to escape the flames.
As news of the fire spread through the tight-knit South Boston community yesterday, friends of the victims made their way to West Sixth Street, where they surveyed the wreckage of what had been their friends' home - with blackened holes in the window openings and charred siding.
West Sixth Street was closed off with blue police sawhorses and yellow tape yesterday. On a street corner just outside the barricade, neighbors had placed a makeshift shrine with stuffed animals, a doll, notes of condolences, and a pink Minnie and Mickey Mouse T-shirt.
"Whoever would do this has no heart. They are cold-blooded," said 14-year-old Melissa Barros, who was a co-captain of the Gavin Middle School basketball team with Acia Johnson, a point guard on the team. "We became sisters. I am so upset about this."
Barros and a handful of Acia Johnson's teammates said they plan to inscribe details of their own lives and that of their deceased teammate in a book that they will keep as a memento. Some of the girls had light-colored ribbons with Acia's name written on them.
"All we have are our pictures and memories," said Daisy Miranda, a team member. "You can't bring them back. . . . It's just so depressing to talk about it."
At the Gavin Middle School, about 10 students saw grief counselors yesterday. About 50 sought counseling at the school on Sunday. To help with their grief, students made paintings and drawings with messages and wrote poems, Principal Alexander Matthews said. The school plans to hang a plaque in the eighth-grade corridor in memory of Acia Johnson.
"She was a great person to have here," Matthews said. "She was very cheerful; she always had a smile on her face. She always encouraged others to do better."
He also said that she would sometimes bring her sister to school after hours. "She was absolutely wonderful with her," Matthews said. "She seemed to be like a mother to that baby."
Neighbors yesterday provided more details about the fast-moving 3 a.m. blaze that quickly engulfed the house and trapped the girls upstairs. Paul Chase said he was awakened by the sound of alarms ringing through his house, which was heavily damaged by the fire. Chase, who works in the Globe's circulation department, alerted his family and saw the flickering of fire engine lights. And then he stepped outside.
"There was just this wall of flames shooting up the front of Reisopoulos's home," said Chase, who fled with his son and his girlfriend out a basement bulkhead. Chase said he saw Raymond Johnson, the surviving twin, on the street but did not see Reisopoulos. Reisopoulos was listed in critical condition last night at Boston Medical Center, where she was taken after the fire. Raymond was taken to the hospital and released later in the day.
Records in South Boston Municipal Court described lives punctuated by violent disputes.
Earlier this year, Reisopoulos, 34, pleaded guilty to assaulting a 14-year-old boy in 2007, which might have been witnessed by her son and Sophia, who was an infant at the time, records show. Children matching their ages were in the car with her when Reisopoulos stopped on West Sixth Street, got out of the car, and pushed the boy against a wall in front of the Boys and Girls Club, records show. She called him a "white trash cracker," spit in his face, and threatened to return with a knife and "cut the victim's [genitals] off."
Reisopoulos is now facing more assault charges in connection with an altercation in January with Nicole Chuminski, 26, who told police she was Reisopoulos's girlfriend. On Jan. 30, the woman told police that an argument in Reisopoulos's home escalated into a physical confrontation.
"The suspect (Reisopoulos) allegedly pulled the victim's hair, punched her to her face, and scratched victim across the forehead," the police report says. "The victim stated that the suspect told her, 'I'm going to kill you.' " Reisopoulos was arrested Feb. 1 and charged with assault and battery and threatening to commit a crime. Those charges were still pending yesterday.
Police were also called to an altercation in October between Reisopoulos and the twins' father, Raymond Johnson, 37. Reisopoulos, who said Johnson was not Sophia's father, told police that Johnson demanded money from her.
After she would not give him any, they started to argue, and Johnson pushed her down stairs, according to court records, and the fight spilled out into the street. There, Johnson slapped her and spit in her face, police said.
"The victim stated she returned the favor and spit in his face in response," police said in the report. "She stated that the suspect kicked her in the face, breaking one of her back teeth."
Johnson left but not before leaving behind a suicide note and ingesting a full bottle of the pain reliever Aleve, and allegedly stealing his son's $699 Dell laptop. Johnson was later arrested, but the charges were dismissed on Feb. 1 by Judge Paul K. Leary, records show.
Neighborhood children said yesterday that they were shocked and saddened by the children's deaths. Edgar Esturban, 11, said he played manhunt with Acia Johnson on Saturday night before the fire. "I can't believe she died at an early age," Esturban said.
Jadida Barnes, a 14-year-old friend of the Johnsons, said she found comfort knowing that Acia Johnson died trying to help her sister. "I'm happy that she could protect her sister," she said.
"It's weird," said another friend, Crystal Shaw, 16. "They loved each other so much and they died in each others' arms."
James Vaznis of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com. 