Sneak peek: The Firefighter's Secret | Forensic Files

[Music] on November 25th 2020 it was the day before Thanksgiving I received a phone call
shortly after 4:00 from the Mount Morris police chief and he asked me kind of frantically is anybody at my house and I
said my daughter Melissa is and and so there's a fire and it's bad my sister Melissa she was 9 months
pregnant about to have a baby in 2 days what do you remember from November 25th 2020 what was my 17th birthday my
birthday is November 25th me and my mom were at a store we're picking out a cake
and we finally got home and my brother Carl frantically is calling my mom have you heard from Melissa have you heard
from Melissa and we're like no why Carl said the neighbor called and he said the
house is on fire so at that point my heart just sank because we were not sure if Melissa was
home or not I just wanted them both to be okay and all I could think was please just
have one of them at least one of them make it through the night when everyone said they didn't know
where she was and they couldn't hear from her I knew I knew just had that gut feeling that she was
gone for a huge tragedy like that to occur the day before Thanksgiving on Julia's birthday right before the baby
was to be born it was just so much when I arrived at the scene I was told the victim was found laying on the
floor in front of the stove Melissa Lish was a 27 y old EMT we're trying to figure out why there's a fire in the
kitchen we couldn't tell if it was intentional or accidental there was all kinds of possibilities running through
our heads but we we didn't know what happened to her my daughter Melissa she's very
thoughtful and that's why she got into being a paramedic she wanted to help [Music]
people when MSA first told me she was pregnant she told me a couple things about the dad Matt Ploy they on and off
hung out for years and had a similar click of friends Matt Ploy was a firefighter paramedic he was a good
firefighter Matt was somebody that was Dependable on the fire scene he was just one of the guys he was Keeping a Secret
the fact that he fathered a baby in the hopes that the child wouldn't be born for Matt he never had a child before he
didn't want to make it known to other people because he just wanted to keep that part of his life
private Matthew py was a person of interest on day one simply because he was at the scene Matthew py later told
investigators that he was at the house to see Melissa to talk about um the [Music]
baby he admitted he was there he told them everything that they would have needed to know about his presence there
didn't have anything to hide they discussed their finances and then Matt left as she was making some
lunch she talked about some food or something but that we died in St I believe from the very beginning he
was trying to set up a story that there was an accidental house fire that she had been cooking
something which would explain why her body was found in the kitchen when you got the call about
Matthew py possibly being involved in a murder what did you think uh denial that it wasn't one of
our people it doesn't chime with what a firefighter is we put fires out we don't start fires
we help people we don't hurt [Music] people it is unthinkable

ENCORE: A young woman is found dead in her burning home. She'd been involved with a firefighter — could he have set a fire to cover her murder? "48 Hours" contributor Nikki Battiste reports Saturday, Jan. 31 at 9/8c on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.

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Brief Summary

Melissa Lish, an EMT, dies in a house fire, raising questions about her partner Matt Ploy's involvement.

Key points

Tragic Thanksgiving Fire. A family faces a devastating fire just before Thanksgiving, leading to a heartbreaking loss.
Secrets and Lies. The father of the unborn child kept his identity a secret, complicating the investigation.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It is unthinkable.

Referring to the idea of a firefighter starting a fire.

4:24WatchNov 26, 2024

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