A bride and groom’s Illinois home reportedly blew up while they were away getting married, allegedly set off by one of their guests, who left the ceremony and died in the explosion.
Tom Davis and Eleni Vrettos were saying, “I do,” at their wedding ceremony on February 15 when their home exploded in Cicero, Illinois, a suburb less than ten miles west of downtown Chicago, according to a report by ABC 7 Chicago.
“I ran here in my wedding dress, like down the alley, and was watching from a neighbor’s yard,” Vrettos told WGNTV. “Everything was just smoke at that point.”
The bride added that she was told about the explosion just minutes after saying, “I do.”
A body that was later found among the rubble was identified as 31-year-old Anthony Avila-Puebla — one of the wedding guests — who is suspected of being responsible for the blast.
While Avila-Puebla was present at the wedding, other guests commented that he went missing during the ceremony at some point.
Police, meanwhile, noted that the 31-year-old was in a relationship with someone who had also lived in the house but did not reveal their identity.
Avila-Puebla was caught on surveillance video parking his vehicle half a block away from the house before bringing at least two jugs of what appear to be flammable liquid into the newlyweds’ home, making multiple trips to and from his car, police said.
Authorities added that the man set fire to the house but never came back outside.
The blast also set fire to a neighboring building, resulting in the displacement of ten other families, police noted.
Vrettos told WGNTV that the house was her childhood home, where she made memories with relatives who are no longer living. The bride added that she and her brother had recently taken ownership of the home, which had belonged to her mother for nearly 40 years. Moreover, they were still in the process of transferring home insurance and did not have coverage at the time of the explosion.
Vrettos also revealed that six cats — four belonging to her and two belonging to her mother — had lived in the home. It remains unclear if the cats perished in the explosion or were let out before the blast occurred. The animals are currently considered missing.
“I thought I would have them for years; they were all much younger, and they were my home I would say,” the bride said of the cats. “So now i don’t have a home, and on top of it, I don’t have them as my home.”
“That’s the most devastating because they’re the ones that give me the comfort through that darkness,” she added. “My dad passed away a few years ago, so we don’t have the home as a remembrance of him, too. It’s a lot to grieve.”
A GoFundMe campaign was created for the family and has raised over $58,000 at the time of this writing.
The motive behind Avila-Puebla’s alleged explosion remains unclear and is still being investigated by Cicero police.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
