Overview of Nanette Krentel
It's been almost since Nanette Krentel was killed and her home set ablaze to cover up her murder
In 2017, a fire was set at Nanette Krentel's Louisiana home—it would later be discovered that the arson was to cover up her murder.
Friday, July 14th, 2017, started out as a typical day. Nanette made her husband Steve—the then fire chief of St. Tammany Parish's Fire District 12—lunch before he left for work. Once he left at 7:45 am, Nanette drove to McDonald's to get herself some breakfast. She arrived back at home at 9:11 am. At 10:03 am, Nanette called her local Kmart pharmacy to refill a prescription. At around 1:30 pm, Nanette placed a call from her cell phone. This was the last contact she had made with anyone outside of her home.
An hour later, a 911 call was placed by a neighbor to report a fire at Nanette's home. The fire department arrived and began putting out the blaze which had engulfed the home. They entered and began searching for Nanette, and eventually found her laying on her bedroom floor, face up and burned beyond recognition. It became clear to the investigators that the fire had been set intentionally. The leading factor in their determination of arson was that the nine surveillance cameras and digital recorders around the home had been doused with accelerant.
The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office ruled Nanette’s death a suicide until one week later when they found a bullet wound above her right temple. There was no exit wound and no sign of soot in her lungs, indicating that she was not alive when the fire started. The cause of death was quickly overturned.
Further into the investigation, law enforcement reviewed an email that Nanette had sent to her father at the end of June, which contained an image of an unknown individual on her property. In this email, Nanette told her father that "this was the day I got out to get the mail and looked up and this man was walking towards me. He just looks creepy!" Nanette had expressed to her father that she had felt like she was being followed.
Investigators also looked into Nanette's husband Steve, as the two had been having marital problems following Steve’s affair with another woman and subordinate from the fire station. According to Steve, they had worked past these problems in their marriage. But according to Nanette's family, she expressed she had wanted to leave the relationship. St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Randy Smith has publicly cleared Steve Krentel as a suspect, and there have since been no suspects or persons of interest in Nanette's case.
There is currently a $10,000 reward for information regarding Nanette's death.
If you know anything about the death of Nanette Krentel, please contact the City of New Orleans Crime Stoppers at (877) 903-STOP | (877) 903-7867.
