Corpus Christie, TX: Flour Bluff home explosion ruled a murder-suicide Explosion killed three in June

By Mike Baird

Originally published 02:33 p.m., November 4, 2009
Updated 03:06 p.m., November 4, 2009

CORPUS CHRISTI — Police have ruled a Flour Bluff home explosion that killed three people a murder-suicide.

Investigators said Wednesday they are closing the case on the June 18 Greenbay Street home explosion after receiving DNA results that allowed them to eliminate any other suspects.

Autopsy results of the three victims revealed that Jaime Flanagan, 42, was the only resident with enough soot in his lungs to have been alive at the time of the explosion, police Lt. Isaac Valencia said.

Flanagan’s girlfriend, Deletha Baker, 55, was stabbed to death, according to a medical examiner’s report.

Autopsy results for her granddaughter, 14-year-old Nostalgia Baker, revealed a very low level of carbon monoxide in her lungs, indicating she took some breaths at the time of the explosion. Nostalgia also had head trauma that occurred at or about the time she died, which investigators said could have been caused by debris.

The investigation had been awaiting DNA results for blood found on the outside of the home’s back door. Those results showed the blood belonged to a family member who was injured while remodeling the property long before the explosion, Valencia said.