Story highlights
Nina Asher was 12 weeks pregnant, the coroner says
Her three children die in the fire
Two girls who had come for a slumber party are also killed
Bright colors adorn the front yard of the rural Kentucky house. An orange basketball. A red-and-blue tricyle. Numerous toys.
The colors provide a stark contrast to the dark burned-out shell of a house that sits in the distance – and offer a painful reminder of the tragedy that befell the people who lived within.
A fire swept through the single-story, wood-frame house in Gray on Saturday morning, killing two adults and five children.
Jesse Disney, 26, died in the fire, as did the woman he planned to marry, 22-year-old Nina Nicole Asher.
Asher, said the Knox County coroner, was 12 weeks pregnant.
Her three children from a prior relationship also perished in the fire: William, 3; Camden, 2; and Abigail, just 8 months old.
The last two victims were two other children who had come to spend the night for a slumber party: Payton Cox, soon to be 3; and her sister, Brielle Cox, 2.
“It’s been rough,” Justin McCulley told CNN affiliate WBIR. “I miss Jesse. He’s one of my best friends.”
Disney and Asher met in the fall and had plans to get married.
Relatives told the station that the couple had moved into the house only recently, and spent Friday night cleaning carpets and painting walls to prepare for the new baby.
“(They) really cared about each other. It’s terrible,” Mcculley said.
Authorties do not yet know what caused the fire, but Sgt. Jimmy Young with the Kentucky State police said foul play is not suspected.