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Stacy Kuykendall, the ex-wife of Cameron Todd Willingham, offers her first detailed account of the 1991 fire that claimed the lives of her three daughters and led to Willingham’s execution in 2004. “Todd set our house on fire then stood outside and watched it burn,” Kuykendall asserts, saying she agrees with Gov. Rick Perry’s portrayal of her husband as “a monster.” Here is the full statement:
On October 18th I read that David Grann said that the Chicago Tribune reporters, Steve Mills and Maurice Possley, tracked me down and interviewed me about my ex-husband and if he in fact confessed to me. He wrote that I firmly said that Willingham had never done so. I have never been formally interviewed by any reporters. Mills, Possley and Grann have all come to my home uninvited to ask me questions about my ex-husband. I told them all that I no longer believe that Todd was innocent, that he did murder my daughters and I did not want to talk about that which had to deal with him. I was asked why I didn’t believe that he was innocent and my response was, after reading statements, mainly Todd’s, that first of all, he gave conflicting stories of what happened the day of the fire and secondly after visiting with him on death row that he was guilty. I was asked what was said the day I visited with my ex-husband. I told them that I believed that was personal and would not respond to the question. I asked them repeatedly to leave my property. On December 23rd, 1991 I was taken to the hospital and told that my three daughters had died in a house fire. Cameron Todd Willingham, the girls’ father, was at the hospital alive. When I saw Todd after having been told about my daughters, the first thing I asked him was if he could tell me why I was just told that my babies were dead and he was still alive. Todd just looked at me and had nothing to say. I left the room and returned to my oldest daughter and later that evening I returned to the hospital where Todd had been admitted. When I got to Todd’s room he told me that he heard Amber, our two-year old, yelling, “Daddy, Daddy”, he got up, put his pants on, told the two-year old to get out of the house, then said he went into the twins room, got down on his hands and knees feeling around on the floor for the babies. He even told me that he thought at one time he had found one of the twins but that it was a teddy bear instead. Todd said that the fire was so bad that he got out of the room and made his way to the front door. He said that the front door was on fire so he had to kick and keep kicking the door down so he could get out of the house. Todd’s feet were not burnt at all. This was the first story that Todd told us about that day. That night I remember sitting in his room looking out the window and him telling me not to worry that we could get my tubes untied and have more children. I couldn’t believe what he had just said to me. I had my doubts about what Todd was saying about what happened that day. After Todd was arrested and told his family that he didn’t do this, I had to believe that he was telling us the truth. I was 21, just lost all my children and now everyone expected me to believe that their father did this.
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