Transcription
On this episode of Black Girl Gone, I tell the story of four little girls who were killed after someone set fire to their home while they slept. Kiana Davis, 11, Kiara Phillips, 9, Cariel McDonald, 7, and Keani Welsh, 5, lived with their mother, Galen, in Flora, Indiana.
But on November 21st, 2016, the girls and their mother were asleep in their apartment when someone set it on fire, trapping all four girls inside their upstairs bedroom where they slept. Their mom tried to save them but was unable to get to them.
Initially, investigators believed that this was just a tragic accident. But when accelerant was discovered, investigators determined that the fire had been intentionally set, and the deaths of Kiana, Kiara, Cariel, and Keani was murder. But 8 years after the horrific tragedy, no one has been held responsible.
This is the story of the Flora 4. In 2016, four little girls, sisters, were all killed after someone maliciously set fire to their home, trapping them inside. Nearly 8 years after this tragedy took place, there are many unanswered questions, and the person responsible for setting the fire that took their lives has never been found.
There are many layers to the story: the investigation, the emotional toll on the family, and the broader issue of justice for the most vulnerable. But at the core of it all was the tragic loss of four little girls whose lives were brutally cut short. These innocent children deserve justice, and the person responsible for their deaths must be held accountable. The continued search for the truth is not only about closure for the family but also about ensuring that justice is served for the lives so cruelly taken.
Kiana, Kiara, Cariel, and Keani were raised by their mother, Galen Rose, and all four girls were born in Missouri. Kiana, the oldest of the sisters, was born on June 5th, 2005, in Columbia, Missouri. From a young age, she was described as a bright and happy child with a natural curiosity about the world. She loved nothing more than curling up with a good book or getting lost in her favorite TV shows. Kiana was not only intellectually curious but also active and vibrant. She had a passion for sports, always eager to run around, play games, and stay active. Her love for fashion was another side of her personality; she also enjoyed picking out outfits and experimenting with different styles. What truly set Kiana apart, though, was her adventurous spirit. She was always excited to explore new places and experience new things. Whether it was a trip to the park or a family outing, Kiana approached life with a sense of wonder and enthusiasm that was contagious. She loved discovering the world around her. She was a little girl with big dreams, full of life, joy, and endless curiosity.
Galen's second daughter, Kiara, was born 2 years after Kiana on September 27th, 2007, in St. Louis, Missouri. Like her older sister, Kiara was a bright and joyful child, known for her infectious smile and kind spirit. She shared Kiana's love for reading, but her true passion was music. Whether she was singing along to her favorite songs or dancing around the house, Kiara was always in motion. Her outgoing nature made her a magnet for friends, and she cherished the time that she spent with them. Kiara was the kind of child who made everyone feel welcome, and her playful personality drew people in. Family members recall how much she loved parties, always ready to laugh, dance, and enjoy every moment of a good party. She embraced life fully with a vivaciousness that was impossible to ignore.
Cariel was born June 2nd, 2009, 3 days before her older sister Kiara, in St. Louis, Missouri. Cariel was described as an energetic child who also loved to dance and loved school. She was always so excited to go to school to see her teachers and her friends.
Keani, the baby of the bunch, was born on January 10th, 2011, in Jefferson City, Missouri. Keani was a shy, quiet little girl who preferred to stay in the house with her mother, Galen, over playing outside with other kids. She was a mama's girl for sure and loved to lay in the bed with her mom watching TV, cuddled up.
By all accounts, Galen was a devoted mother who loved her children deeply. Like many single mothers, raising four children on her own came with its challenges. Balancing work, home, and the emotional needs of her daughters wasn't easy, and at times she struggled to keep everything together. But despite the hardships, her commitment to her girls never wavered. Galen's daughters were her entire world, and she worked tirelessly to provide them with a stable home, ensuring that they were surrounded by love and opportunities for a brighter future. She made sacrifices and did everything she could to create a life filled with joy and security for her girls.
After years of living in Missouri, Galen decided that it was time for a change. The daily grind of life and the desire for a fresh start led her to make a bold decision to move, seeking better opportunities and a new environment for her family. She packed up and moved with her daughters to Flora, Indiana. The move symbolized a new chapter for Galen and her girls, one filled with hope and the possibility of building a better life. And despite the challenges of moving, Galen was determined to give her daughters the best life that she could, and so she embraced this new beginning with a lot of optimism.
Galen chose Flora because her dad, Tracy Rose, was living there. Tracy, who had gone to prison when she was 11, had since been released and had turned his life around. And in 2011, they reconnected. Moving to Flora gave them another chance at having a relationship and an opportunity for Tracy to be in his granddaughters' lives. After moving to Flora, Galen and the girls moved in with her dad. The girls enrolled in school, and Galen found a job working at a local gas station. They lived with Tracy for about eight months before Galen was able to find a place of their own. The place she found was a duplex on East Columbia and South Division streets in Flora. The rent was $500 a month and close to the gas station where Galen worked. On May 1st, 2016, the family moved into their apartment and began settling into their new home. Neighbors recall seeing the girls outside playing during the day and described them as polite children who would always speak to them.
The move to Flora wasn't easy, and Galen recalls how much different it was than Missouri. Flora, Indiana, is a small town located in Carroll County, nestled in the heart of rural Indiana with a population of just over 2,000 residents. Flora is known for its close-knit community, quiet streets, and small-town charm. But for Galen, it wasn't until moving to Flora that she felt prejudiced for the first time. "It was totally different than Jefferson City. I worked in the Marathon, the gas station that every day I would have a gentleman come in there and throw change at me because he wanted coffee. The energy shifted," Galen told WISV during an interview. It wasn't really the change that Galen was looking for, but she made the best of it. The girls started school, and that fall, they all began cheering. Kiana, the oldest, had started playing basketball, something that she loved. Life was good, and Galen and the girls were happy. But six months after moving into their apartment, just a few days before Thanksgiving, Galen's entire world would go up in flames.
The weekend of November 18th started off like any other weekend. The girls had a full schedule, which included a cheerleading competition, and Kiana had a basketball game. On Sunday, Tracy, Galen's dad, said that he had gone out of town that weekend, but he remembered calling his daughter on Sunday during Kiana's game to check on how she was doing. He had no way of knowing that a few hours later, all of their lives would change forever.
I couldn't find much information about the details about the evening on Sunday, November 20th, 2016. But from what I could gather, after Kiana's game, the family came back to their apartment and had a normal evening. Galen said that she spoke to her grandmother on the phone that evening before falling asleep. But at around 3:30 a.m. on the morning of November 21st, she said that she's not exactly sure what woke her up, but something told her to get up, and so she did. But as she made her way to the hallway, she was overcome by smoke. The apartment was on fire. She could hear it roaring, and it was spreading quickly. The apartment they lived in was a first-floor apartment, but it was a split-level, and so the girls' bedroom was upstairs. And so, once Galen realized that her apartment was on fire, she tried to make her way through the apartment to go upstairs and get her daughters, but the smoke was too intense. She couldn't see, and she couldn't breathe.
At 3:35 a.m., calls came into 911 reporting the fire and the fact that there were four children trapped inside. Two officers out on patrol that night were the first to arrive on the scene. Dash cam footage from the arriving officer vehicles showed them pulling up to the scene as smoke and fire engulfed the two-story home. They got out of their cars. They encountered Galen, and the officers asked where the children were. Galen tells them they were upstairs in the house, around the corner on the left. The officers entered the building and attempted to make their way to the bedroom where the girls were, but the smoke was too heavy, and neither officer was able to reach the room, and they were forced to retreat.
But despite the fire station being just a few blocks from the home, several minutes had gone by, and the fire department had not arrived. The officers, one of whom was a volunteer firefighter, attempted to go back into the building once again in an attempt to save the girls, but by that time, the flames were even more intense, and this time, while they were inside, something happened, and one of the officers went down. Several minutes after the first calls came into 911, firefighters arrived at the scene and entered the home. They were able to recover the two officers from the building, and they were taken to a nearby hospital. But the girls were dead. All four were unable to be resuscitated. Galen, in her attempt to save her daughters, sustained severe burns and smoke inhalation and had to be airlifted to a nearby hospital.
As the sun rose that morning, the quiet town of Flora slowly came to life. But it wasn't long before the tragic news of a fire spread through the small, close-knit community. Whispers of the disaster traveled quickly, and with them came the heartbreaking revelation that four young girls had perished in the flames. Shock and sorrow gripped the town as neighbors, friends, and even strangers struggled to comprehend the loss. The devastating news cast a dark shadow over Flora, leaving the community in disbelief and mourning for the innocent lives that were taken far too soon.
But once the investigation into the fire began, the stunning truth would come to light, and the fire that initially was thought to be accidental would be proven to be no accident at all. In the early morning hours on November 21st, 2016, 11-year-old Kiana Davis, 9-year-old Kiara Phillips, 7-year-old Cariel McDonald, and 5-year-old Keani Welsh were killed in a fire that spread through their first-floor apartment. But as the investigation into the fire began, the shocking truth behind the cause of the fire is revealed.
In the days following the fire, the small town of Flora was engulfed in grief and disbelief. Vigils were held in honor of the four sisters, with heartbroken family members and devastated community members coming together to mourn the unimaginable loss. As investigators combed through the charred remains of the home, they searched for clues about how this deadly fire began. Was it faulty wiring? A candle left burning? Or something else? While investigators searched for a cause, funerals for all four girls were held at the local high school. Football players from the high school volunteered as pallbearers, carrying the four little caskets in and out of the service.
Galen eventually recovered from her physical injuries, but the emotional toll of losing all four of her beloved daughters was something no amount of time or healing could ever mend. The pain of their absence weighed heavily on her every day, a grief that ran so deep it left a permanent scar on her heart. Each moment reminded her of the memories they would never create, the milestones they would never reach, and the laughter that once filled her world but had now gone silent. But while she continued to grapple with the fact that her world was turned upside down, the results of the investigation into the fire would add new layers of devastation to this heartbreaking tragedy.
In January 2017, 2 months after the fire, the fire investigators completed their report, and they had determined that the fire was set intentionally. Investigators said that the fire was incendiary and that accelerant had been found in several areas of the apartment. The investigators concluded that this was an arson, meaning someone had set the apartment on fire with several people inside, killing four children. But now that they had a cause, investigators needed to find the person who set this fire.
When the information about the arson hit the news, rumors immediately followed. People around town began whispering about who could have been responsible for such a despicable crime, and it didn't take long for suspicion to turn towards Galen. Despite suffering several injuries herself while trying to save her children, many people began wondering if she had anything to do with the fire. A $5,000 reward for information about the fire was offered to the public, but in the weeks following the announcement that the fire was caused by arson, no one came forward with information.
But in early February 2017, 8 days after investigators announced that the fire was arson, a private investigator sent an email to a local news station. And in that email, he stated that the determination that the fire was caused by arson was speculation and that there had been no determination made because the investigation was still ongoing. This email began to cast a shadow over the investigation and the investigators. But it wasn't the only thing that created suspicion around this investigation.
A few months later, in June 2017, the lead investigator on the fire resigned under a cloud of suspicion that he had improperly handled the investigation. And in November 2017, the chief of the fire department also resigned his position after it was discovered that his boss, Josh Irvin, who was the president of the Flora Town Council, was also the landlord of the property where Galen and the girls lived. The resignations of these two key figures, along with the speculation surrounding their departures, only served to complicate the case further.
Now, even though the February letter claimed that the cause of the fire had not been determined to be arson, local, state, and federal agencies working the case never changed the cause of the fire and continued to treat it as arson. In the months following the tragedy, Galen struggled to navigate a world that no longer made sense to her. She would never hear her daughters' voices again, never see their smiles, and never feel the warmth of their hugs. Though surrounded by support from family, friends, and the community, the overwhelming sense of loss was ever-present. Galen knew that moving forward without her girls was a burden that she would carry for the rest of her life. The devastating loss of all four of her children in such a horrific and senseless way left Galen grappling with not only the sorrow but with the unanswered questions: Who would do something so cruel? And why? Though her physical wounds had healed, the emotional wounds would remain forever open, a constant reminder of the daughters that she had loved and lost so tragically.
But as the one-year anniversary of the deaths approached, the community and Galen's family were frustrated by the lack of answers coming from the investigation. Someone out there had murdered these girls by setting fire to their home as they slept, and everyone wanted that person off the street. Eventually, the NAACP joined the family and the community's pleas for information and transparency about where the investigation was. In October 2017, the NAACP held a press conference accusing the investigators of "bungling the case and trying to cover up their mistakes." "Too many questions after a year. We should be wrapping things up now. I don't even want to live in a community where this is allowed to happen, and you couldn't give me any answers. Why would I even want to stay there? A lot of unanswered questions are out there, and the NAACP is going to do all we can to make sure that whoever is responsible for this heinous act, that this comes to light and is dealt with appropriately," Barbara Bowling Williams of the NAACP said during the press conference. There were people in the community, including Galen, that believed had her girls been white, that the investigation would have been handled more carefully.
A few months after Kiana, Kiara, Cariel, and Keani were killed, Abigail Williams and Liberty German were murdered 15 minutes away from Flora in Delphi, Indiana. And while these cases were very different, the amount of attention and information coming out about their murders stood in stark contrast to the way Kiana, Kiara, Cariel, and Keani's deaths were handled. A year after the fire, Galen left Flora. It was too painful for her to remain in the place where her daughters had been killed. In the years following the fire, the deaths of these four young girls haunted the community, but no information emerged. The cloud of suspicion lingered over Galen while police stayed tight-lipped about the investigation, claiming that they could not comment because it was still open. But no suspects were ruled in or out.
In December 2017, the Indiana Fire Department began a peer review of the case to confirm the cause of the fire, and in January 2018, they issued a report confirming that the fire had been intentionally set. However, their report said that accelerant had only been found in one part of the apartment. In May 2023, almost 7 years after her daughters were killed, the Indiana State Police finally confirmed that Galen was not a suspect. It was the first and only time that investigators had said anything regarding a suspect. But being ruled out was little solace for Galen, who knew she had nothing to do with her daughter's death. But it didn't answer questions for those who wondered if she was involved. Galen had filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the landlord and his business partner, and in 2023, the case was settled for an undisclosed amount of money.
In August of that year, the home where the fire took place was demolished after it was determined that there was no need to reserve the property as part of the investigation. And as of the recording of this episode, the investigation into the arson fire that took the lives of Kiana, Kiara, Cariel, and Keani remains open, according to the Indiana State Police. However, no suspects have been named, and no new information has been released about this case. It has now been almost 8 years since someone killed Kiana, Kiara, Cariel, and Keani, and the fact that no one has been held responsible haunts not only her family but the community in Flora. Although Galen has left the area and the house is now gone, the questions and suspicion about these murders remain.
Someone truly evil could set a fire to a home where they knew people were inside, sound asleep. That doesn't seem like a random crime. That seems personal. Someone wanted to hurt the people inside that home, and as a result, four innocent little girls lost their lives. Someone knows the truth about this fire. Someone knows who and why this fire was set, and the person responsible deserves to be brought to justice for their horrific crime. Kiana, Kiara, Cariel, and Keani were four little girls who deserved to live, and until they get justice, we must tell their story.
If you have any information about the fire that was set on November 21st, 2016, in Flora, Indiana, please contact the Indiana State Police. May Kiana, Kiara, Cariel, and Keani rest in peace. Thank you for listening to this week's episode. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and Threads.