Joplin woman tells KOAM stepdaughters murdered their father, tried to kill her, after being cut off financially

Twin sisters killed their father and tried to kill their stepmother after they cut them off financially, the stepmother told KOAM.

Elizabeth Marie Baez, 40, Joplin, and Tiffany Lukasiewicz, 40, Pittsburg, Kansas, are charged with setting the December 4 fire at 1730 S. Picher, that killed David Crowder, 68 and severely injured Crowder's wife, Linda.

Linda Crowder was the intended victim since the twins felt she was the one who convinced her husband to stop giving them money, she told KOAM reporter Kate Kelley.

The twins went as far as removing the fire extinguisher from the house, Crowder said.

Linda says she tried throwing water on the fire, but it was spreading fast. One of Linda’s stepdaughters threw her husband, David in the bathroom. Linda says she called 911 and went back to save him.

“Nobody had come back to get him, so I crawled on the floor like they say on the TV and tried to reach him. I got almost to the door and I caught on fire,” she recalled.

Linda suffered third suffered third degree burns across her body, but she survived. Her husband, 68-year-old David Crowder, died in the fire.