I can't stop crying over this one:

(02-16) 13:53 PST Pittsburgh (AP) --


A mother was charged with criminal homicide Wednesday in a house fire that killed her two toddlers 15 years ago. Investigators said she and another woman had set fire to a dog, and the flames spread to her home.


Tequilla Fields, 34, was charged along with her friend, Lachan Russell, 29, and they were jailed without bail.


Investigators knew from the start that the 1990 blaze began when a dog was set on fire, and they suspected the two women, but could not connect them to the fire. More recently, cold-case detectives re-interviewed about 20 witnesses and came up with new details.


Some of those questioned had "settled down into a more responsible lifestyle and things like this affect them more now," police Commander Maurita Bryant said. "They wanted to get things off their chest."


Police said Fields wanted to get rid of the dog because one of her children was allergic to it. Fields tried to get the dog to run away and even dropped it off several miles away, but the animal returned, Bryant said.


In police reports, Fields and Russell accused each other of dousing the dog with kerosene or charcoal lighter fluid and setting the animal on fire while it was still tied to the home's porch.


Fields' grandmother threw water on the burning dog, but flames had already spread to the house, police said. The dog ran inside the home and was later found dead, along with Fields' 2-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter.


It was not immediately clear whether the two women had attorneys.


URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...a135319S48.DTL