APPLE VALLEY – Nearly four years after the death of an 11-month-old boy, cold case detectives uncovered enough evidence to arrest the infant’s father for murder.
Lucas Dingman, 30, was taken into custody on May 1 in La Porte City, Iowa after evidence linked him to the death of Bradley Dingman on May 20, 2011. Fire broke out an apartment complex on the 20300 block of Broken Bow Road that day.
Deputies responded to the fire shortly before 10 a.m. on that date. Reports that smoke alarms had sounded inside the apartment and residents discovered smoke coming from Bradley’s bedroom led to finding the boy in his crib.
Lucas Dingman and Bradley’s mother, Alicia, who was not married to Lucas, were outside watching firefighters battle the blaze. A neighbor that heard the alarm had tried to extinguish the fire. When the child was found inside his crib, he was suffering from burns to 70 percent of his body as well as smoke inhalation. He died one day later from the trauma at St. Joseph’s Medical Center where he had been taken for treatment.
Investigators from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Dept. Homicide Detail took over the case, along with detectives from the Bomb and Arson Division. “Arson investigators determined the fire to be arson and it was intentionally set,” sheriff’s office officials said in a release.
The suspect in happier times
Also, according to reports, both Lucas Dingman and the boy’s mother, whose last name was not released, would have had to run past Bradley’s room to leave the apartment during the fire.
Despite the initial investigation, including extensive interviews, the case went cold. Shortly after the fire, Lucas Dingman moved to Iowa, but Bradley’s mother remained in California, according to reports.
In February 2014, Cold Case Team detectives reopened the investigation. It was not reported what evidence investigators had disclosed. On May 1 detectives traveled to Waterloo, Iowa to interview Lucas Dingman. At the end of the interview, Dingman was arrested for murdering the 11-month-old, booked into Black Hawk County jail and will await extradition proceedings to bring him back to San Bernardino County.
