Charges filed in Troy home explosion that killed three young people
A 22-year-old man has been charged with multiple felonies in connection with an Easter Sunday home explosion and fire that killed three young people in rural Troy.
Colton Cissell, 22, was charged with possession of explosives, involuntary manslaughter and endangering the life of a child resulting in death, according to information from the Madison County Jail.
Cissell, who was injured in the fire, was arrested Saturday by the Madison County Sheriff’s Office and remains in custody in the jail.
An attorney for Cissell has not been identified in Madison County Circuit Court records.
The explosion occurred at 8004 W. Kirsch Road, the home the Cissell family rented. Law enforcement responded to the blast at 11:14 p.m. Sunday, April 5, court documents show.
The three people who died in the fire were Madeleine I. Maxeiner, 18, of Troy, Cissell’s stepsister; Ayden R. Hendrickson, 19, of Collinsville; and Paisley Nishwitz, 12, of Troy.
Cissell was assigned short-term guardianship of Paisley, according to a statement Illinois Department of Children and Family Services provided to the Troy Times Tribune.
Hendrickson’s parents told KSDK he was staying at the home with his girlfriend and her family.
Cissell’s father, Kenneth Cissell, 48, and stepmother, Roberta Cissell, 43, Maxeiner’s mother, escaped the home without significant injuries.
The Madison County Sheriff’s Office previously said the fire was caused by multiple explosions and the initial one was “due to the mishandling of commercial-grade energetic material.” Energetic materials are substances that contain a large amount of stored chemical energy like explosives, propellants and pyrotechnics.
According to affidavits that accompanied search warrant requests in the investigation, Roberta Cissell told deputies that her stepson made homemade explosive devices with the binary reactive rifle target Tannerite and was in a club that manufactures fireworks.
Investigators searched the badly-damaged home, outbuildings, vehicles, Colton Cissell’s cellphone and video, audio and other data from a Blink home-security system.
They found containers inside an enclosed trailer and shed that had markings indicating energetic materials and precursors to energetic materials. A vehicle registered to Colton Cissell had possible explosive-making materials like cardboard tubes. Roughly 50 items were seized.
After the fire, the Illinois Secretary of State Bomb Squad conducted controlled detonations to disarm explosives.
Madeleine Maxeiner’s father Robert Maxeiner filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Madison County against Roberta Cissell, Kenneth Cissell, Colton Cissell and the property owner Dennis Grapperhaus.
It alleges the Cissells kept dangerous explosives at the house without required permits or licenses, stored them improperly and failed to maintain fire precautions, including working smoke detectors.
Grapperhaus was named as a defendant because he “knew or should have known” explosives were being stored on his property, and he was responsible for equipping the house with smoke detectors, according to the lawsuit.
