Wedding guest set fire that destroyed couple’s home as they got married, IL cops say
Two weeks after a newlywed Illinois couple’s Cicero home burned down on their wedding day, investigators are now saying a wedding guest is responsible for the blaze, news outlets report.
The fire happened Feb. 15, the day Eleni Vrettos and Tom Davis tied the knot, McClatchy News previously reported.
“I ran here in my wedding dress, like down the alley, and was watching from a neighbor’s yard,” Vrettos told WGN. “Everything was just smoke at that point.”
Vrettos lost her four cats in the fire, and human remains were found in the charred wreck that had been her home for 30 years, McClatchy reported. Who the remains belonged to was unclear, though family said a wedding guest was unaccounted for.
The suspected cause of the fire, she said, was a gas leak.
However, evidence points to a very different explanation, investigators say.
Anthony Avila-Puebla, the father of Vrettos’ sister’s child, is believed to have started the fire and then died as a result, police told WBBM. Avila-Puebla was in a relationship with someone who lived at the home, but it’s unclear if that person is Vrettos’ sister.
He had been at the wedding, but left at one point, got in his mother’s car and drove to the home, the station reported.
Family told WLS that he went missing during the ceremony.
Surveillance cameras captured Avila-Puebla going in and out of the house with several jugs filled with a flammable liquid, police told WFLD.
Moments later, the home exploded, according to police. Avila-Puebla never left the house and the remains found inside were identified as his, the outlet reported.
Police have not said what may have motivated him to start the fire.
While Vrettos is heartbroken over the loss of her home, and her pet cats, she’s thankful for the support she and her family have received.
“My family and I are beyond grateful for all the support, big or small, after the tragedy with the house explosion on my wedding night that took our family home of over 35 years, countless memories, and even my innocent, beloved fur babies … especially when it comes to navigating the ‘unknown’ with the aftermath of the sickness caused by the hands of an evil person who took everything from us,” she wrote in a Feb. 27 Facebook post.
Cicero is a roughly 10-mile drive southwest from downtown Chicago.
This story was originally published March 2, 2025 at 10:40 AM with the headline "Wedding guest set fire that destroyed couple’s home as they got married, IL cops say."