On this day in 1992, an arson at Pyramid Apartments killed 5 SIU students. The case remains unsolved.
On Dec. 6, 1992, an intentionally set fire at an apartment complex in Carbondale took the lives of five students and injured eight others.
The early-morning fire was contained to the top two stories of the building, at 504 S. Rawlings St. Investigators believed the fire was the result of arson, but a suspect was never identified. The Carbondale Police Department currently lists the fire as a cold case.
Bedclothes hung from third-story windows Sunday afternoon, evidence of the attempts by residents to shorten their falls.
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According to a Southern Illinoisan story the day after the fire, some residents suffered multiple fractures after jumping out of windows of the three-story building. One woman's pelvis was crushed when she landed.
"It was a long way down," then- Jackson County coroner Dr. Jerry Thurman told The Southern following the fire. "I'm amazed that more people weren't killed."
Five students died in the fire, four of whom were international students.
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The day after the fire, the front page of The Southern listed four of the five eventual victims who died in the fire: Cheng Teck Wong, 23, of Malaysia; Ronald A. Moy, 23, of Chicago; Kimioko Ajioka, 25, of Japan; and Lai Hung Tam, 23, of Hong Kong.
A fifth victim, Mazlina Ab Wahid, 28, of Malaysia, died the day after the fire.
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The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms joined the investigation of the fire, which authorities believed from the beginning was the result of arson.
Overwhelming response
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Following the fire, thousands of clothing and food items, campus services and cash donations poured in for victims. Thirty-one SIUC students were displaced by the fire.
Investigating the cause
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Federal agents helped to investigate the fire. But it remains unsolved.
Family mourns loss of 'treasure'
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From the Dec. 10, 1992, issue of The Southern:
"Those who were closest to 25-year-old Kimiko Ajioka, a Southern Illinois University at Carbondale student who died in the fire Sunday at The Pyramids apartment complex, say she represented the spirit of a Japanese saying, 'Hakoi-ri-Musume.'
"The phrase means 'a well-kept treasure.'
"Kimiko, from Osaka, Japan, was one of five SIUC students killed in the fire early Sunday. Kimiko's mother, Reiko, and her four brothers and sisters were together in Southern Illinois Wednesday to make funeral arrangements and to establish a memorial fund in her name.
"Many other families of the international students killed or injured in the fire are making their way to Carbondale this week. The International Student Association is making arrangements for the relatives to stay with families in Carbondale, rather than in hotels.
"When deciding to study in America four years ago, Kimiko knew she would have plenty of support when attending SIUC. Her aunt, Masako Shin, lives in Herrin, and her uncle, Yutaka Toyota, lives in Chicago. Both are SIUC graduates and helped ease her transition from Japan to Carbondale.
"'In the last two years, she often told me that her four years here had been one of the happiest times of her life,' said Shin. 'She was a very traditional Japanese young girl. She loved the fresh air of Carbondale, and she was free to think, free to speak, more so than in Japan.'
"Kimiko was a traditional Japanese dancer, a very intricate and formal type of dance similar to ballet. She had taken three lessons a week for many years as a child to learn the art."
— Brian Mattmiller, The Southern, Dec. 10, 1992
Aftermath of fatal fire
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From The Southern, Dec. 11, 1992:
"Arson investigators comb rubble
"Investigators in Carbondale Thursday wrapped up an extensive on-site investigation of the apartment building where fire killed five Southern Illinois University at Carbondale students Sunday.
"Police Chief Don Strom said investigators continue following up leads, but they have no suspects in the arson investigation."
Police investigation continues
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Police said five years after the fire that they believed one person acted alone to set the fatal fire that killed five people, and that the suspect was not living in the Carbondale area then, five years after the incident. Police also said then they did not believe the crime was racially motivated.
The investigation at that point had taken police and federal agents to 10 states and Japan, and had involved the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, SIUC and state police, the Illinois State Fire Marshal's Office, the federal departments of Justice, State and Treasury, and Interpol.
Remembering the victims
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A memorial stands near Campus Lake. The plaque on the memorial reads: "The world will never know what their young lives could have given. May time ease our grief into passion for making this world more peaceful for all its people."
Cold case
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The Carbondale Police Department currently lists the fire as a cold case. A reward of $6,000 is offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction of those responsible for setting the fire.
25 years later
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Firefighters and first responders stand behind Carbondale Mayor John “Mike” Henry as he speaks during a memorial service marking the 25th anniversary of the fire, which killed five SIU students, held on Dec. 6, 2017, at SIU's campus lake.
Carbondale Police Chief Jeff Grubbs spoke at the memorial, saying his department still has a strong commitment to solving the case.
K. Janis Esch wrote in the Dec. 7, 2017, edition of The Southern:
“You certainly don’t want to put odds on your ability to successfully resolve an incident, especially one that happened so long ago, but some of the irony associated with that is that there are still several of us that remain at the police department who are in leadership positions that keep that case alive,” Grubbs said.
Grubbs was among the three patrol officers who responded to the fire at the time and continue to serve in the police department.
“Obviously all the first responders, once we saw the significance of what was occurring that night and those who were desperately trying to escape the smoke and the flames — it’s one of those moments in life that you still have vivid memories of and hope that tragedies like that don’t ever occur again,” Grubbs said.
He said people could still be out there, either in the U.S. or in other countries, who have information pertaining to the fire.
“Even if they don’t realize the significance of that information, we would simply call upon them to provide (it) to us, to help us get to a point where we can resolve an incident as tragic as this one was,” Grubbs said.
25 years later
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SIU and Carbondale community members gathered at Campus Lake in 2017 to mark the 25th anniversary of the fire and remember the victims.
