Family Of OKC Couple Killed In House Fire Donates Land To Habitat For Humanity

Deanne Stein, News 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- An Oklahoma City family, who suffered a huge loss, is giving another family a new beginning.

Terry Haynes lost his parents, Boyd and Doris Haynes, in a house fire at 7608 S. Miller Avenue in Oklahoma City in July of 2011. Sixteen-year-old Tristan Ryan Owen, who lived in the neighborhood, is charged in their deaths after he allegedly started the fire with Molotov cocktails he made himself.

7/13/2011 Related Story: Elderly Couple Died Of Smoke Inhalation, Ruled A Homicide

"To get a phone call at 4 o'clock in the morning from a neighbor saying your parent's house is on fire, and to get into the car and drive over and literally as soon as you get here to have the fire department say in so many words that your parents are dead is devastating," Haynes said.

The couple died of smoke inhalation, just hours before Haynes was to move them to an assisted living facility.

7/13/2011 Related Story: Son Focuses on Lives of Pair Killed In OKC Fire

"It left a huge hole in all of our hearts and all of our lives," Haynes said. "It's been well over a year since I've even been in this neighborhood because it's heartbreaking."

But Saturday he returned as the walls of new hope are raised.

"I think it gladdens all of our hearts," he said.

Haynes said the family donated the couple's property to Habitat for Humanity, where volunteers have already started the construction of a new home for Albert and Marin Lourdes and their two children.

"I am very, very happy and want to say thank you so much from everybody here," said Marin Lourdes, future owner of the home.

"We are seeing something that my mother and dad would be proud of, it continues a legacy of them giving back to the community," Haynes said. "This is a new beginning."

The new family should be in their home by the end of the year. Meanwhile, Tristan Ryan Owen will be tried as an adult on murder and arson charges. His trial is expected to begin next week.

2/17/2012 Related Story: Slain OKC Parents' Son Reacts To Adult Status Of Suspect