YULEE, Fla. – A Nassau County man called a hero for rescuing his wife and their infant son from a burning home last December was charged on Friday with murder.
Sheriff Tommy Seagraves said deputies arrested Michael Ratley at his home Friday morning and charged him with murder.
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Ratley's wife, Effie, died in January of lacerations to the head -- an injury that was first described as head injuries resulting from a fall. She died after several days in a coma.
Nassau County investigators had said the physical evidence did not match what Ratley told them. In announcing the arrest, Seagraves would not elaborate on the evidence that led to the murder charge.
More than a month before her death -- on Dec. 29 -- Ratley was credited with pulling their 2-week-old son from their burning mobile home on Lee Lane in southwestern Nassau County, then going back in and saving his wife.
"I knocked out what glass I could with my hands and told her to just follow my voice to the window. She couldn't see because of the smoke. When she came to the window, I just picked her up and carried her out of the house," Michael Ratley told Channel 4 the day after the fire.
Fire investigators at the time said they suspected faulty wiring was the cause of the fire, but detectives are investigating to see whether it may have been arson.
"We're still looking at pieces of the investigation as we go," Seagraves said. "Everything is still being looked at."
Channel 4's Adam Landau reported that Ratley, 26, was being held without bond at the Nassau County Jail pending a first appearance before a judge.
At an emergency hearing in family court on Friday morning, custody of the couple's now 10-month-old son was temporarily awarded to Effie Ratley's mother.
Previous Stories:
- January 31, 2007: Police Call Nassau Woman's Death Suspicious
- December 29, 2006: Nassau Co. Father Rescues Family From Fire