BOSTON, March 21, 2016—The woman who set the fire that killed 20-year-old Crystal Lynn Blanchard in her Chelsea apartment five years ago was sentenced to life in prison for her actions, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.
MELISSA PFEIFFER (D.O.B. 1/12/84) was convicted Feb. 10 of second-degree murder under the theory of felony murder for starting the Dec. 24, 2010, fire that engulfed her Spruce Street apartment building, trapping Blanchard on the second floor, where she died. Pfeiffer was also convicted of one count of arson and two counts of causing injury to a firefighter as a result of criminal conduct.
At a sentencing hearing today, Assistant District Attorney Julie Higgins of the DA’s Homicide Unit recommended that Pfeiffer serve the mandatory term for second-degree murder, life in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years. Higgins also recommended a three- to five-year sentence on the firefighter injury charges, to be served from and after the murder sentence. Because the arson served as the foundation for the felony murder conviction, Higgins recommended that it be dismissed.
Suffolk Superior Court Judge Janet Sanders sentenced Pfeiffer to life with the possibility of parole after 15 years with a concurrent three- to five-year term. She dismissed the arson conviction as duplicative.
Prior to sentencing, Blanchard’s family addressed the court to recall the young woman as “a bright and caring person” and a talented artist with a promising future ahead of her.
“She would stop whatever she was doing to help someone else,” said her step-father, who pointed out that, though they lived in the same building, Pfeiffer didn’t even know the young woman she killed.
“You would have been friends,” he said. “Instead, you’ve stolen, ruined, and changed so many lives.”
Blanchard’s mother spoke of her as “a caring, loving, talented young woman, loved by many. She was smart and full of life. We miss our daughter every minute of every day.”
Deputy Chief Wayne Ulwick of the Chelsea Fire Department said he and his fellow firefighters had responded to “countless fires,” but will always remember his lungs burning as he fought to contain the blaze. He said he could still see in his mind’s eye “the image of the victim’s body when my crew laid her on the sidewalk.”
During the course of the nearly weeklong trial, Higgins presented evidence and testimony to prove that Pfeiffer and her boyfriend had an argument in their apartment on the night of Dec. 24, 2010. After her boyfriend left their first-floor apartment, Pfeiffer intentionally set fire to the man’s clothing and left the scene without notifying others inside the five-unit building or contacting Chelsea Fire Department. Firefighters were only alerted to the blaze when a group of passersby who were lost in the area saw the flames shortly after 11:00 p.m. and called 911. Two Chelsea firefighters suffered smoke inhalation during their attempts to suppress the conflagration.
The fire spread quickly and, by the time a fire alarm sounded, it had trapped Blanchard and her boyfriend, then 33, in a second-floor apartment. The boyfriend suffered third-degree burns as well as fractured vertebrae and a fractured ankle when he was forced to jump out of a second-floor window to safety.
Blanchard never made it out, the evidence showed. Firefighters found her body at the top of a second-floor stairwell. She died of smoke inhalation and thermal injuries.
The fatal fire was investigated by members of the Suffolk County State Police Detective Unit with the assistance of Chelsea Police detectives, the Chelsea Fire Department, and troopers assigned to the State Fire Marshal’s Office, leading to Pfeiffer’s arrest on Jan. 6, 2011.
Assistant District Attorney Colby Tilley of the DA’s Appellate Division second-seated Higgins at trial. Elise McConnell was the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate. Pfeiffer was represented by James Doyle.
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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
