Bridgeport police: Woman intentionally started fire that killed her 78-year-old father
Donna Mladina was also caught on surveillance video removing valuables from the home shortly before police pulled her from the burning home.
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A Bridgeport woman is facing arson murder charges after police say she set fire to her home while her 78-year-old father was inside.
Firefighters responded to the home at 120 Bick Terrace shortly after 1 a.m. on Sept. 20.
Authorities say 53-year-old Donna Mladina intentionally set the fire, which eventually claimed the life of her father, Jakov Mladina.
She was also caught on surveillance video removing valuables from the home shortly before police pulled her from the burning home.
Bridgeport police says judicial records show the house was foreclosed back in June, and it was set to be auctioned off just hours after the fire.
"In my time here with the police department," Detective Jeffrey Holtz says, "it is a very unusual case."
Neighbors say they never noticed anything unusual or out of the ordinary happening around the home.
"Fifty-something years old and you were with this man your whole life?" neighbor Fermin Pizzaro says. "I'm shocked, just shocked."
Police say they were not aware of any indications of prior problems either.
"I think the order of the foreclosure on the house and the subsequent sale and auction," Holtz says, "speaks to the motive that we found."
Mladina's bond was set at $1.5 million.
"Just a really sad situation," Pizarro says.
