Investigation continues on man found dead in burned house - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

When Indianapolis firefighters were called to the 3900 block of Chateau Lane on the east side Sunday morning, they knew someone might be inside. 

When the fire was almost out, they found 27-year-old Bryant Steele, burned beyond recognition. His family identified him by tattoos on his arms.

When it comes to children, regardless of how old they are, a mother's intuition is almost always right. And just like every night, Bryant's mother Regina Collin-Steele prayed for her children. "And every night,"she said, "I would lie down and I would pray and ask God to put his shields around him, you know, so that nothing would happen to him out there in the streets."

So before the Indianapolis Fire Department arson investigators and police homicide detectives were called Sunday morning, Collin-Steele knew her youngest son was in trouble. "So the only thing I can say now, my son is in a better place. I don't have to worry about him no more."

Collin-Steele knew her son was not living the life she wanted for him. She hoped and prayed that he would slow down, settle down, "I said, 'Bryant, it is more than running the street and partying.' I said there is more to life than that," she said Sunday. 

Firefighters found Steele in the front room of the house. The fire destroyed the room where Bryant had been asleep on a fold-out couch.

Investigators are trying to determine if the fire was an accident or deliberately set.  

Steele's aunt Sandy Rogers is hoping someone in the neighborhood will come forward with information.  "People don't seem to understand when you're in a neighborhood like this, you know people should be neighbors," Rogers said. "But when you ask people, 'did you hear anything? Did you see anything?' The answer is always 'no.'"

But the bigger question is one only Steele himself could answer. The question is one only a mother can ask. "Only if I knew what was going on in Bryant's mind," Collin-Steele said, "and I could really get it out of him, maybe I could have saved him. I don't know."

Steele is the seventh person in his family to die this year. The others died of natural causes.

An autopsy is scheduled Monday to determine how Steele died.