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House fire remains under investigation

KINGWOOD — There’s nothing new in the investigation into the cause of an October fire at the home of a man accused of murder.

On Oct. 19, 2020, a home at 847 Number 4 Road, Tunnelton, burned. Firefighters called in the state fire marshal to investigate.

The home is listed on court documents as the residence of Robert Joseph Quinn, who is charged with the first-degree murder of his neighbor, Philip “Buckie” Barlow. 

“It still remains under investigation,” Timothy Rock, public information specialist with the West Virginia State Fire Marshal’s Office, said Wednesday of the fire.

The  chief investigator and the field marshal in that area “said that there is no further development in that case” since the newspaper inquired in late October, Rock said.

 Quinn has been in  Tygart Valley Regional Jail without bond since his arrest in October 2020. Barlow, 61, was last heard from May 29, 2019. His body was discovered in June 2019 near Fortney’s Mill.

Laura Lynn Martin, who police identified as Quinn’s  girlfriend,  is also charged with first-degree murder in the case. She was not listed as an inmate in the state jail system Wednesday.

According to criminal complaints, they killed Barlow while attempting to rob him. Barlow was nearing retirement, and the couple heard he had “a large sum of cash,” according to the complaints. 

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