CEDAR LAKE | Clutching tightly to the binder filled with six years of facts and documents regarding the death of her 21-year-old daughter, Teresa Hunley says she is a mother on mission.
She has decided to offer a $500 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone responsible for the fire that led to the death of her daughter Tina Marie Dreiling on Sept. 13, 2001.
Dreiling died in a fire at her apartment, 4607 Indianapolis Blvd., East Chicago. She was a 1998 graduate of Hanover Central High School.
Herbie Cruz, the Emergency Management and Homeland Security director for East Chicago, investigated the fire for the East Chicago Fire Department six years ago.
"It was two days after 9/11," Cruz recalled. "It was the first fire resulting in death that I investigated."
He said a number of agencies were involved in the investigation, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the East Chicago Police Department.
"Unfortunately, back then there were red flags but not enough to go on," Cruz said.
Arson was cited by East Chicago officials, but no one has been arrested.
The Lake County coroner's office also concluded the cause of death was undetermined, which still leaves it open to criminal prosecution.
"I talked to her all the time," Hunley said of her daughter. "She told me once that if anything happened to her, I should make sure it was investigated. ... I've got to follow this through."
Hunley has been distributing reward posters, including her daughter's picture, throughout the region in search of answers.
She started in Cedar Lake and will be posting them in all East Chicago and Hammond businesses that will accept them as well as other areas in which she knows her daughter spent time.
"I think about her every day. ... She was my first child," Hunley said, remembering the good times at Tina's softball games and watching her perform with the pom-pom squad. "I'm waiting for her to walk through the front door. Sometimes it's like it's all a dream, like she just moved away."
Cruz said Hunley regularly calls him.
"It will be open as long as there is a hint of possible foul play," Cruz said. "We'll do everything humanly possible to find resolution."
