by By Danielle Quisenberry and Steven Hepker | Jackson Citizen Patriot
Wednesday November 26, 2008, 8:31 AM
Blackman Township investigators said today Steven Sampier II was murdered before his N. Brown Street home was set on fire early Tuesday morning.
Firefighters found the charred remains of the 30-year-old Department of Corrections drill instructor after extinguishing the blaze in his one-story ranch house.
"It was a homicide and it appears the fire was started to conceal or destroy evidence," said Jon Johnston, deputy director for Blackman Township Public Safety.
An autopsy late Tuesday afternoon confirmed Sampier's identity and that he was murdered, Johnston said. Investigators are not releasing details on the cause and manner of death.
The Jackson County Major Crimes Task Force, comprised of representives of five local police agencies, is investigating.
Sampier's father, Steven Sampier, spent Tuesday hoping his tears were for naught and that it wasn't his son who was found dead.
"It's got to be him... I just wish I could have been there to pull him out of the fire," said Sampier of Midland, who spent much of Tuesday in tears. He said he kept waiting to get a call from his son, but had not.
Lee Taylor, a neighbor, said the house on Brown Street had been broken into recently and the windows were later broken out of Sampier's vehicle.
The elder Sampier said two police officers arrived at his home Tuesday morning to inform him his son, an Army veteran and Michigan Department of Corrections employee, was believed to have died in the fire at 1054 Brown St. He said Steven Sampier II's car was locked in the garage of the home near Argyle Street and his son lived alone.
Firefighters from four departments arrived at the home about 1 a.m. Tuesday to find it in flames.
"The house was fully engulfed. There were flames coming out of every window," said Taylor, who lives two houses south of the Sampier house and woke up Tuesday to the sound of fire trucks.
Officers were monitoring the house Tuesday night and were to continue watching the home, which they considered a crime scene, township public safety Sgt. Steve Stowe said.
The house was roped off with yellow tape. Its front windows were open to a black interior.
Steven Sampier said his son had worked as a drill instructor at a boot camp on Waterloo Road in Chelsea since leaving the Army in 1999.
He joined the military in 1996, after he graduated from a Midland high school, and served for three years with the 82nd Airborne Division based in Fort Bragg, N.C.
After 2 1/2 years, Sampier II earned the rank of sergeant and spent some time in Bosnia, the father said. "He got a bunch of ribbons, more than I ever got in the Marines. He was always teasing me about that."
Outside of some high school fights, he had not been in trouble, his father said.
The father said his son was professional, courteous and well-respected at work. He was going to college to get a degree in criminology, his father said.
Often, he called his dad to talk about the Detroit Lions or Tigers.
He was well-liked, his father said. "People always asked me more how he was doing than how I was doing."
The news has been tough to take, Steven Sampier said. "I just have a hard time dealing with this thing," he said.
Anyone with information on the case may call the tip line at 787-0212.
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