‘Perfect little boy,’ mom killed in Las Vegas house fire recalled

Gavin Murray Palmer loved going to school, playing with race cars and riding dirt bikes with his dad. He was a “speed demon” who always wore a soccer jersey and often came home with perfect marks on homework assignments.

“He was the perfect little boy,” his father, Sean Murray, said in an emotional phone interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Thursday, two days after Gavin and his mother, Renai Palmer, died in a house fire in western Las Vegas.

Murray, 33, and Palmer, 47, ended their relationship when Gavin was 1. The two had joint custody of the 6-year-old boy, and Murray said his son would stay with him on weekends.

“I consider myself his best friend,” Murray said. “He would tell me that all the time. He always wanted to be next to me.”

So much so, Murray said, that even though Gavin had his own room at his house, he insisted on sleeping next to his dad on the weekends.

“He would always fall asleep on my chest, ever since he was a baby,” Murray said, chuckling.

Murray never imagined that this past weekend would be his last with Gavin.

‘A big jigsaw puzzle’

Just before 8:20 a.m. Tuesday, Las Vegas firefighters pulled the boy and his mother from a fire inside an upstairs bedroom in a two-story custom house at 1930 Fox Canyon Circle, near South Cimarron Road and West Sahara Avenue. Gavin lived there with his mom and his maternal grandparents, said Murray.

Palmer’s family could not be reached Thursday for comment.

By the time the blaze had been reported, Gavin already should have been at school, said Murray, who noted his ex-girlfriend was usually good about getting him to school on time.

The two were rushed to a hospital but died. Murray said his son suffered burns on more than 60 percent of his body and was already dead before they had gotten to the hospital.

“It’s weird he wasn’t in school then,” Murray said.

Las Vegas Fire Department spokesman Tim Szymanski said Thursday it would likely take a month for investigators to determine the official cause of the fire.

“Here’s what I’m telling everyone, and I know this for a fact: We sent off several things to be tested at a lab,” Szymanski told the Review-Journal. “This is like a big jigsaw puzzle, and what we’re trying to do now is get all the pieces and then we’re going to try to fit them together. We’re not even going to make a guess about the cause at this point.”

Szymanski did not elaborate on the “several things” that had been sent to a lab, but Murray said he was told by a fire investigator that a gas canister was found in the home.

The home, built in 1997, had at least one smoke detector, he said, but no sprinkler system. Sprinklers were not required at the time the house was constructed.

The Clark County coroner’s office, as of Thursday, had not ruled their cause and manner of deaths.

‘He was just starting life’

Gavin, a first-grader, had attended Derfelt Elementary School since kindergarten, Murray said.

His death was announced this week in a letter sent home to parents from Principal Gina Howard. The school provided grief counselors to students “to ensure they have the support and resources they need to get through this difficult time.”

“It is never easy to lose a valuable life, especially at a young age and we will truly remember this students as part of our Herbert Derfelt Elementary family,” the letter stated, in part.

Gavin’s paternal grandmother, Kathleen Wheeler, proudly told the Review-Journal on Thursday that “her little peanut” had recently come home with a 100 percent on a first-grade assessment test.

Crying, she said: “He loves school. He was a good little boy. He listened to his ’Nona,’” she said. “That’s what he called me.”

“I don’t know what else to say,” she said through tears. “He was just starting life.”

As Murray and Wheeler grapple with life without Gavin, Murray said he finds comfort knowing that Gavin “loved his daddy so much.”

“Gavin was my life,” Murray said. “People who know me, who know Gavin, could see that he was a daddy’s boy through and through.”

Murray is taking donations on GoFundMe for Gavin’s funeral service and celebration of life.

Contact Rio Lacanlale at rlacanlale@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @riolacanlale on Twitter.