Okanagan woman questioned in NY arson that killed her family
SPOKANE, Wash. -- An Okanogan woman has been questioned by authorities from New York who are investigating the 1978 arson that killed her husband and seven children in the family's home near Albany, New York.
New York officials have visited Virginia Utigard of Okanagan, formerly known as Virginia Gratto, to discuss the arson that wiped out her family and left her the sole survivor.
In 1978, fire ripped through the Gratto family home in Cohoes, a small town 10 miles north of Albany, New York. Seven children, aged 4 months to 9, erished in the fire along with their father, John Gratto, Sr.
The fire's sole survivor was Virginia Gratto, then 29, the children's mother and John Gratto's wife. The woman, who was 3-months pregnant with her eighth child, was treated at a hospital for her injuries and released several hours later.
Then-District Attorney Sol Greenber said a grand jury heard testimony on the case for months, but never heard from Virginia Gratto.
Investigators said Gratto never acted like a woman who had lost her entire family. Greenberg said when she returned to the charred remains of her home, she "went back to the scene of the fire, looking for her purse."
While investigators never heard from Gratto, a local newspaper did. According to an article in the Lewiston (Maine) Daily Sun dated June 5, 1978, Gratto said she needed to find "a new place for myself and to start all over again."
WTEN, a TV news station in Albany, reported Gratto answered a newspaper ad from an apple farmer in Eastern Washington, and moved to Okanogan to start a new family.
On July 14, 1978 - just two months after her family was killed in the house fire in Cohoes - Norman Utigard of Okanogan married Virginia Gratto in a ceremony in Coeur d'Alene.
Ten months later, the grand jury investigating the Gratto family fire reported the house was destroyed by arson.
In its findings presented to the New York State Supreme Court and as reported by the Schenectady Gazette, the grand jury found "the evidence clearly establishes the sole cause of the fire was arson, intentionally set by person or persons unknown."
"They've been trying to blame me for it and there's no way I would have done such a thing," Virginia Utigard said in 1979.
No indictments were ever handed down nor was the case closed. Utigard lived with her husband at Cherokee Orchards in Omak until his retirement in 1987. She has been living in Okanogan since Norman Utigard's 2006 death following an extended illness.
Thirty years after the deaths of her husband and seven children, authorities are speaking to Utigard about the fire.
Sources confirm federal, state and local investigators from New York traveled to Okanogan to question Utigard about the fire. WTEN reported authorities have focused on Utigard from the start of the criminal investigation because she had showed notably little emotion in the hours following the fatal fire that killed her entire family.
Utigard told KXLY-TV she was taken to the sheriff's office, where she was surprised by the presence of investigators from New York on Wednesday.
Utigard said they asked her questions for about seven hours Wednesday, but refused to elaborate further on the discussion.
The woman did add, however, she had "nothing to hide because I didn't do it."
The conversation didn't end there, however. Just minutes later, Utigard told KXLY-TV she was pressured into signing a confession during the 7-hour interview, even though she continued to maintain her innocence.
She added the night of the fire in 1978 "was the worst night of my life, [I] loved [my] children dearly and would never hurt them no matter how miserable a person is," explaining her 10-year relationship with her husband John Gratto Sr. had been abusive.
After two conversations during which the KXLY reporter speaking with Utigard clearly identified themselves when asking for comment on this story, Utigard called a third time and said that she had been advised not to make any comments about the case, then asked to essentially retract everything she had already said on the record.
The investigators from New York have since left the state. The case remains under investigation.
New York officials have visited Virginia Utigard of Okanagan, formerly known as Virginia Gratto, to discuss the arson that wiped out her family and left her the sole survivor.
In 1978, fire ripped through the Gratto family home in Cohoes, a small town 10 miles north of Albany, New York. Seven children, aged 4 months to 9, erished in the fire along with their father, John Gratto, Sr.
The fire's sole survivor was Virginia Gratto, then 29, the children's mother and John Gratto's wife. The woman, who was 3-months pregnant with her eighth child, was treated at a hospital for her injuries and released several hours later.
Then-District Attorney Sol Greenber said a grand jury heard testimony on the case for months, but never heard from Virginia Gratto.
Investigators said Gratto never acted like a woman who had lost her entire family. Greenberg said when she returned to the charred remains of her home, she "went back to the scene of the fire, looking for her purse."
While investigators never heard from Gratto, a local newspaper did. According to an article in the Lewiston (Maine) Daily Sun dated June 5, 1978, Gratto said she needed to find "a new place for myself and to start all over again."
WTEN, a TV news station in Albany, reported Gratto answered a newspaper ad from an apple farmer in Eastern Washington, and moved to Okanogan to start a new family.
On July 14, 1978 - just two months after her family was killed in the house fire in Cohoes - Norman Utigard of Okanogan married Virginia Gratto in a ceremony in Coeur d'Alene.
Ten months later, the grand jury investigating the Gratto family fire reported the house was destroyed by arson.
In its findings presented to the New York State Supreme Court and as reported by the Schenectady Gazette, the grand jury found "the evidence clearly establishes the sole cause of the fire was arson, intentionally set by person or persons unknown."
"They've been trying to blame me for it and there's no way I would have done such a thing," Virginia Utigard said in 1979.
No indictments were ever handed down nor was the case closed. Utigard lived with her husband at Cherokee Orchards in Omak until his retirement in 1987. She has been living in Okanogan since Norman Utigard's 2006 death following an extended illness.
Thirty years after the deaths of her husband and seven children, authorities are speaking to Utigard about the fire.
Sources confirm federal, state and local investigators from New York traveled to Okanogan to question Utigard about the fire. WTEN reported authorities have focused on Utigard from the start of the criminal investigation because she had showed notably little emotion in the hours following the fatal fire that killed her entire family.
Utigard told KXLY-TV she was taken to the sheriff's office, where she was surprised by the presence of investigators from New York on Wednesday.
Utigard said they asked her questions for about seven hours Wednesday, but refused to elaborate further on the discussion.
The woman did add, however, she had "nothing to hide because I didn't do it."
The conversation didn't end there, however. Just minutes later, Utigard told KXLY-TV she was pressured into signing a confession during the 7-hour interview, even though she continued to maintain her innocence.
She added the night of the fire in 1978 "was the worst night of my life, [I] loved [my] children dearly and would never hurt them no matter how miserable a person is," explaining her 10-year relationship with her husband John Gratto Sr. had been abusive.
After two conversations during which the KXLY reporter speaking with Utigard clearly identified themselves when asking for comment on this story, Utigard called a third time and said that she had been advised not to make any comments about the case, then asked to essentially retract everything she had already said on the record.
The investigators from New York have since left the state. The case remains under investigation.