Newlyweds from Illinois couldn't believe that one of their wedding guests was behind their house explosion. 31-year-old Anthony Avila-Puebla was responsible for destroying the couple's home and died in the blast on February 15.
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ABC 7 reported that while Avila-Puebla was present at the start of Tom Davis and Eleni Vrettos' wedding, he disappeared during the ceremony. Cicero police confirmed to the outlet that the suspect was in a relationship with someone who lived in their home.
Newlyweds Shocked That Wedding Guest Caused House Explosion
As the wedding continued, detectives found video footage of Avila-Puebla parking half a block from the home. It showed him carrying jugs of some type of flammable liquid into the property on at least two different occasions.
The house eventually caught fire after the explosion at 4:50 PM, but Avila-Puebla never left the building. Not only that, but the enormous explosion set a nearby home on fire. The outcome managed to displace 11 families.
This fire tarnished the 32-year-old bride's best day of her life. WSAV reported the wife's horrified reactions to the incident when she received calls as the ceremony ended. "I ran here in my wedding dress, like down the alley, and was watching from a neighbor's yard. Everything was just smoke at that point."
Not only did they find the culprit's body in the rubble, but Eleni's four cats as well. The deaths of her four beloved pets have left the newlywed devastated, as two of the cats belonged to her mother. "They were the perfect little bunch, like they all got along," said the wife.
"I thought I would have them for years, they were all much younger, and they were my home, I would say. So now, I don't have a home and on top of it, I don't have them as my home." She also explained how her father passed away a few years prior and the cats helped "comfort [her] through that darkness."
On top of that, the home meant a lot to her and her family as they grew up in it. Eleni revealed that she and her brother were new owners of the home that was in her mother's name for almost four decades. They were previously in the process of transferring home insurance when the fire happened, meaning they didn't have coverage for it.
There is a GoFundMe set up for the family to help rebuild after the devastating inferno. With a $60,000 goal in donations, they're already 95% of the way there.
