Mother of boy killed in duplex fire says she has unanswered questions

WEST ALLIS (WITI) -- 14-year-old Isaiha Kobow died in a fire in West Allis, along with his friend, 14-year-old Michael Gonzales. The devastating fire broke out in the early morning hours of Sunday, March 17th. Now, Kobow's mother is speaking out -- saying she still has unanswered questions that haunt her.

Lori Cheever is planning funeral services for her son this weekend, but she says she is far from feeling closure.

"I still have questions. I still wonder. I still wonder what happened there. I don't have closure, and I don't know if I'll ever get closure," Cheever said.

Cheever says she will have those questions at least until an official police report comes out, determining what cause the fire that killed Kobow and Gonzales.

"I still don't have answers. I just know that he's not here and he's not coming home. That's all I know," Cheever said.

Cheever says her son was just recently diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome, a form of autism. He was still working on his dream of attending Duke University. The night of the fire, Cheever believed her son had slept at a different friend's home.

"Actually Isaiha didn't have permission to be there. I am a strict mom and one of our rules is if you're spending the night at somebody's house you have to call me or text me to figure this out and I talk to a parent who is present and going to be present," Cheever said.

Police say there was no adult in the home when the fire broke out. A 13-year-old took a four-year-old to safety, but Kobow and Gonzales couldn't make it out.

Cheever is upset for another reason as well. As she tried to locate her son through texts with no answer, she then tried Facebook -- and discovered her son was killed in a fire.

"Facebook is the one place I don't like -- I don't like at all, and that's the one place where I had found out that my son had passed. I don't understand why I didn't get a phone call from the mother, the father, the police -- from somebody to let me know where my son was -- that this is possibly happening to him," Cheever said.

Police say they have still not completed their investigation. The Gonzales family buried their son, Michael on Monday.