Renee Bentley, 52, a White/Caucasian female, died on May 31, 2023, after an early-morning fire drew emergency crews to a home at 1027 Indian Drive in the Lake Wynonah development in Wayne Township, Pennsylvania. What first appeared to be a deadly house fire soon became something far more troubling. Firefighters were called shortly after 5:30 a.m. when smoke was reported coming from the home, and as crews worked through the burning structure, they found two people dead inside: Bentley and 54-year-old Michael Dellock.
The home was in a quiet private community, and early reports described the incident as an active investigation by Pennsylvania State Police, the Troop L Major Case Team, the fire marshal's unit, and the Schuylkill County Coroner's Office. Firefighters from multiple departments responded, including Summit Station, Schuylkill Haven, Friedensburg, Pine Grove, and Mount Aetna.
At first, authorities publicly released only the victims' identities and confirmed that both had been found during fire suppression efforts.
As the investigation continued, forensic autopsies shifted the case away from a simple fatal fire. Schuylkill County Coroner Dr. David J. Moylan III later said the deaths were determined to be a murder-suicide. According to that determination, Bentley was shot by her boyfriend, Michael Dellock, who then shot himself. The fire was believed to have been set afterward, likely in an attempt to conceal or obscure the crime scene.
No arrest was reported because the suspected killer, Michael Dellock, was also found dead at the scene. Publicly available reports did not describe any additional suspects, and no charges, trial, or conviction followed because the person identified as responsible died during the incident. The case was therefore left as a domestic murder-suicide in which a fire initially masked the violence that had taken place inside the Lake Wynonah home.
