28 August 2026 , 16:35
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Police today confirmed detectives are not linking a fatal house fire which killed a seven-year-old girl and her aunt to last weekend’s deadly A66 crash.
Seven people, including two police officers, died in the collision between a marked police vehicle and a Volkswagen Passat near Middlesbrough last Saturday.
Since then, officers have been called to multiple incidents across Teesside. On Wednesday, Valentina Foster, seven, and her aunt Natalie McDonald, 34, were tragically killed in a house fire in Grangetown, Teesside. Two men have since been arrested on suspicion of murder.
Police initially refused to rule out a potential link between the house fire and organised crime. Today, the force said they are not linking the fire to the A66 crash.
On Thursday morning, a house in South Bank, Middlesbrough, was rammed by a "jeep-type car". The vehicle repeatedly drove into the front wall of the home until it was "smashed down", a neighbour said.
It came as footage shared online showed a number of cars on fire in a field in Haswell, County Durham, as balloons were released at a memorial event for Michael Robert Cahill, 23, one of the five men in the Passat. It appears the cars - including an £80K Porsche - were set ablaze as part of the event.
Technology & Business Editor