Affidavit: New details emerge in Feb. fatal fire on Wainwright Street

We're learning new information about a fatal fire on Wainwright Street in Alexandria on Feb. 29 that claimed the lives of 48-year-old Verlana Cooper and her three grandchildren, Jayda Cooper, 7, Brooklyn Cooper, 4, and Dreya Russaw, 4 months.

Two women, Tamielya Brevelle, 30 of Ball, and Dorthy Bosby, 27 of Alexandria, were arrested and charged back in March and April for four counts of second degree murder and one count of possession of a delayed action incendiary device.

According to an arrest affidavit filed into public record, Brevelle is Bosby's aunt. Bosby has a hearing set for Thursday to reduce her $1,020,200 bond. She's being represented by public defender, Andree Jacques. The case is being prosecuted by special prosecutor for the Rapides Parish District Attorney's Office, Hugo Holland. Holland has opposed the motion to reduce her bond, calling Bosby a "danger to the public."

The affidavit states that the father of Dreya Russaw admitted during an interview that he had an affair with Brevelle while still involved with his baby's mother, and that Brevelle became pregnant.

Investigators obtained video footage from the neighborhood that "had similarities of a 2010-2013 Chevrolet Camaro," and that the vehicle "was parked a few houses from the fire scene, then drove off after the fire could be seen in the video."

Investigators said in their report that Brevelle has a 2011 Chevrolet Camaro registered to her. The report also states that phone records show that Brevelle was in contact with both the father of Russaw and the father of another one of the children who died in the fire.

Brevelle last had contact with Russaw's father in the days following the fire. She denied ever being at the house on Wainwright Street and told investigators she picked up her child from Bosby's house and was in Oakdale later that day. But, "cellphone records indicated the phone's position was in Ball, Louisiana until 11:14 p.m. The phone tracks to Alexandria and is not registering between 11:22:27 p.m. until 11:49:59 p.m."

Investigators obtained a DNA sample while questioning Brevelle in March. The lab told investigators that the "profile obtained" from the incendiary device recovered from the house "matched an apparent genetic direct female relative of Ms. Brevelle."

Investigators obtained Facebook records of Bosby through a search warrant and found several concerning Brevelle on the day Brevelle was arrested.

"She pregnant and hurt!!" reads one of them in the affidavit. Another, ...idk wtf came over her to do some Evil lifetime Story sh*t like that!!" Later, "I feel like Milly asked me be apart of this with her way before the fire happened to have something to fall back on or a partner or something."

Cellphone records obtained by detectives on Feb. 29 indicate that Bosby's phone was "connected to a cellular tower near Masonic Drive, the same cellular tower that Ms. Brevelle's connects to on February 29, 2020 at 11:52 p.m."

In her handwritten motion to reduce her bond, Bosby writes that she was arrested for "false charges."