Update (11/13/09) 6:15pm--The Medical Examiner's Office has positively identified a second adult homicide victim in this case. The Medical Examiner has ruled that Brooke Phillips died of a gunshot wound. Ms. Phillips was pregnant at the time of her death. The remaining victims' names will be released as soon as they are positively identified and next-of-kin notification has been made.
Anyone with information regarding this case should call the special tip line at 405/297-1200.
Update (11/13/09) 4:00pm--OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Police investigating the death of four people in a house fire identified one of the victims Friday as a pregnant woman who had died of gunshot wounds, but they gave no clues on whether another mom-to-be who worked at a Nevada brothel that featured on an HBO reality series was among the dead.
A spokesman for the Oklahoma City Police Department, Sgt. Gary Knight, said the Medical Examiner's Office identified 22-year-old Milagrous Barrera as one of the victims in Monday's blaze in Oklahoma City. Authorities have said the fire was deliberately set and that they are treating the case as a homicide.
More information will be released as and when the victims are identified and next of kin notified, he said.
Knight said separately that a second of the victims — three women and one man — had been pregnant.
Efforts to identify the victims have been slow because the bodies are so badly damaged, he said, adding, "they were severely burned."
Knight said authorities had not identified a suspect.
Dennis Hof, owner of the Moonlite BunnyRanch, a legal brothel near Carson City, Nev., said relatives and friends of a pregnant employee, Brooke Phillips, believed she was one of the victims. Hof said he had not spoken with Phillips for more than a week and had been unable to reach her.
"It's the saddest time in the 54-year history of the BunnyRanch. The girls are devastated," Hof said. "We need some type of closure on at least the fact that she's not going to be with us."
Jose Fernando Fierro, the sole survivor of the blaze, has been interviewed by police but is not a suspect, his lawyer said Friday.
"It's very lucky," attorney Shawn Jefferson said. "The house was big enough that people could be in different places. I don't think he saw anything."
Fierro had been renting the house for about three months, and he was close friends with two others in the home, Jefferson said. "One of them was lifelong," he said.
Jefferson declined to identify any of the victims or discuss details of what Fierro told police as well as other aspects of the investigation.
Hof described Phillips as "a popular, outgoing, charismatic girl" who was a big part of the HBO series "Cathouse," which followed the lives of the women working in the brothel. Hof said he hired Phillips two years ago after she said she was a big fan of the series and wanted to work at the ranch and be on the show.
He said she had asked to take some time off after she learned she was pregnant but that she had not told him the identity of the father.
A friend of Phillips, fellow BunnyRanch employee Cami Parker, described her as "a really fun girl" who was excited about her pregnancy.
"I never heard her say anything except positive things. She was always really happy, really upbeat," Parker said. "We used to play Scrabble together. She was so funny. She was always going for the dirty words."
About two dozen messages of condolence had been posted on the BunnyRanch Web site since Phillips' possible death was first reported on Thursday, many from friends and co-workers.
"Everybody's like really upset," Parker said.
