Mom and Her 4 Children Found Dead After ‘Suspicious’ House Fire, as Criminal Investigation Underway

A woman and her four children were killed in a Missouri house fire early Monday morning.

The circumstances of the fire, which also killed the family’s three dogs, were "suspicious," authorities told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and local outlet KTVI. Evidence of criminal activity was discovered at the scene, per the Post-Dispatch.

Police responded to the fatal house fire around 4:23 a.m. on Monday in Ferguson, Mo., a city located just outside of St. Louis, a spokesperson for the St. Louis County Police Department tells PEOPLE.

After officers arrived on the scene, fire personnel informed them that four people had been found deceased in the home. Shortly after, a fifth victim was located.

The five victims were later identified as Bernadine “Birdie” Pruessner, 38, a local professor, and her four children — twin daughters, Ellie and Ivy, 9, son Jackson, 5, and daughter Millie, 2 — according to KTVI, KSDK and the Post-Dispatch.

Photos of the fire shared by the Ferguson Police Department on Facebook show smoke filling the home and rising to the height of the surrounding trees. The smoke could be seen for miles, per KTVI.

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In other pictures of the blaze, which the department called a “horrific tragedy,” the family's neighbors and loved ones could be seen gathering around the Ferguson home as fire personnel put out the fire.

Jamie Young, a neighbor of Pruessner, told KSDK that the mom was a "very good mother.”

Speaking with the Post-Dispatch, Young added that the mom of four “was always looking out for the neighborhood.” Laughing through her tears, Young also recalled a fond memory of Pruessner — the time one of the professor’s chickens escaped into her yard.

Pruessner loved animals, and in addition to her three dogs that died in the fire, had pet chickens, cats and rabbits, which her family is now working to re-home, per the Post-Dispatch and KSDK.

The mother and teacher also loved people, according to her father, Cordell Beache.

“She was an amazing person,” Beache told the Post-Dispatch. “She was in early childhood education, and she did wonders with her children, who were very bright.”

At the time of her death, Pruessner was working as an assistant professor at Lewis & Clark Community College in the child development department and was close to receiving her doctorate in early childhood education, Beache said.

Young, who embraced Pruessner’s father after the fire, told KSDK he said, “That's my daughter and my four grandbabies.”

"And I just ... my heart just went out for him,” Young said. “I'm crying with him now. All I could do is just pray for the family.”

According to the St. Louis County Police Department, its Bureau of Crimes Against Persons detectives, as well as the St. Louis Regional Bomb and Arson detectives and Crime Scene Unit detectives, are all investigating the fire.