Burning Your BFF

Lula Welch Young was born in 1947 and grew up moving between Arkansas and Mississippi with her parents, Oscar and Flora Welch, her brothers Randy and Bobby and her sisters Nettie and Margaret. In the mid-1960s she married her high school sweetheart; the couple had two children, Michael and Stacy, before separating in 1978 and divorcing around 1981. Left to raise the children, Lula worked for a time as a secretary on the oncology floor of a hospital, then trained as an EMT and took her nursing licence, later working as a medical transcriber at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis and as a licensed practical nurse. She also volunteered with the Horn Lake Fire Department, first as a bookkeeper and later on the ambulance crew.

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now The friendship became the centre of both women's lives. They minded each other's children, shopped for one another, trained as nurses together and eventually started a small home healthcare business. details of the account remain covered until revealed

In 1989 Lula was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had a radical mastectomy in April 1990, and when the cancer returned she was given a terminal diagnosis in 1990 or 1991. She underwent chemotherapy and radiation, and by the late summer of 1994, weeks after a Welch family reunion in September, her doctors told her the cancer was in full remission. She was forty-seven.

Unknown to her family, four insurance policies had been taken out on Lula's life. A $75,000 Met Life policy was acquired on 21 May 1992, a $200,000 Met Life policy on 15 November 1992, a $500,000 Nationwide policy on 22 August 1994 with a further $200,000 accidental death benefit, and a $38,000 policy on 21 November 1994, less than a month before the fire, which would clear the loan on her pickup truck. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

Shortly after 5.30 am on 19 December 1994, explosions woke the neighbourhood. The fire was reported at 5.57 am and the house was through the roof by 6.01. Firefighters found Lula between the foot of her bed and the wall, unconscious but alive, with first and second degree burns to her chest and stomach; she died of smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide poisoning before the ambulance arrived. The fire was first blamed on a frayed extension cord running to a space heater. A propane tank was found with its valve open about a quarter turn, and several oxygen bottles were inside the house, which explained the explosions.

details of the account remain covered until revealed The fire chief said no grill was found, only the tank. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Investigators found more sleeping pills in Lula's system than a normal dose, and for a time considered suicide, but her son Michael insisted she had not been depressed. The death was ruled accidental. The fire had burned too hot and too fast, however, and the space heater and propane tank had been found close together.

A Nationwide agent, Brenda Driver, had sold the $500,000 policy. this part of the story is covered for now Nationwide refused to pay the $500,000. A handwriting expert concluded that Lula's signature on the policies had been forged.

details of the account remain covered until revealed Police wired him, but the recording produced nothing. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it

this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed On the night before the fire he parked in Lula's driveway, went inside, forced her to take sleeping pills so she would not suffer, put crushed newspaper beside the heater, opened the propane valve, switched the heater on and frayed its cord to make the blaze look accidental. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it

this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it She laughed as bailiffs led her out. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Lula Young is buried at La Flore cemetery in Grenada County, Mississippi.