Police in western Pennsylvania have charged a 41-year-old man with attempted homicide and arson, accusing him of causing the 2022 gas explosion that destroyed his home while his partner and their three young sons were inside.
The charges against Jacob Rabb turned a mystery that lingered for nearly four years in this Pittsburgh suburb into a criminal case. Investigators say the blast on Hialeah Drive was not a utility accident but a deliberate act built on repeated gas releases, fire analysis and evidence that surfaced long after the flames were out. Rabb was arraigned this week and jailed without bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 18.
The explosion happened shortly before 11:30 p.m. on April 22, 2022, at the family’s home in Plum’s Holiday Park neighborhood. Laura Petty, Rabb and their three sons, who were 11, 6 and 2 at the time, were inside. Police said the oldest boy had been in the basement playing video games and escaped through a window after the blast. He suffered first-degree burns. The adults and two younger children also made it out before firefighters arrived. Holiday Park Fire Chief James Sim said crews found the house “fully involved” and nearby homes smoking as they worked first to protect the houses on both sides. In the first hours after the blast, relatives told reporters the family was expected to survive, even though the home had been reduced to rubble and the neighborhood had been shaken awake by a boom that many residents first mistook for a crash.
Investigators now say the physical evidence pointed in a different direction. Police reviewed Peoples Gas usage records and found what court papers described as extremely high consumption on April 18, April 21 and April 22, 2022. CBS Pittsburgh reported the complaint put the rate at about 300 cubic feet per hour, while an expert told police a normal load for the home’s appliances would have been about 180 cubic feet per hour. Investigators said the pattern suggested gas was escaping into the house rather than being used by ordinary appliances. According to the complaint, Rabb had installed a gas dryer but could not explain the readings. Police said he also told investigators he and Petty woke up when the ceiling collapsed and that he did not notice a gas smell. The oldest son, however, told police he did smell gas before the explosion, according to the complaint. Fire investigators concluded the gas line to the dryer had been manually disconnected and that a nearby furnace likely ignited the vapors.
For a long time, the case looked very different in public. Petty said in early interviews that she woke up in bed with part of the roof down around her and believed Rabb had helped save the family. The family had moved into the house only months earlier, and neighbors initially talked about the explosion as another frightening but unexplained gas blast. That early picture began to shift after the relationship ended. Police said Rabb went missing for a time in December 2022 and left farewell videos for relatives during what court records described as a suicidal episode. In May 2023, Petty sought a protection-from-abuse order. Days later, according to the complaint, she found handwritten notes in a kitchen cabinet. One note said, “P.S. I did blow up the house.” Another said, “If I can’t have her, no one will.” Police also said Rabb later discussed disconnecting the gas valve and turning the gas back on.
The allegations changed the meaning of a scene many people in Plum thought they already understood. Instead of a family surviving a sudden accident, investigators now describe the home as the site of a planned release of gas carried out while the same family slept inside. That distinction matters in a community that has lived with repeated questions about explosions. In August 2023, a separate and unrelated house explosion in Plum’s Rustic Ridge neighborhood killed six people and destroyed three homes, keeping anxiety about home safety high across the borough. Officials have not tied that disaster to the Hialeah Drive case, and investigators later said the Rustic Ridge blast originated inside one house but had not publicly announced a final cause at the time. Still, the earlier Hialeah Drive lot remained an empty scar in the neighborhood, and neighbors said the lack of a public answer after the 2022 blast left them unsettled for years.
Residents who ran toward the fire that night have become some of the clearest witnesses to how violent the blast was. Neighbor Akil Washington said he heard a loud boom, felt his house shake and rushed outside with others. He told local television reporters that he could hear Petty screaming and that neighbors tried to tear down a fence to reach her. “We were right in the flames,” Washington said. Another neighbor, Harriet Schwartz, said the garage door landed in her front yard. Lou Bellisario told CBS Pittsburgh the charges surprised him because neighbors had lived so long without knowing what caused the explosion. Those details help explain why the filing of charges has landed so hard in Plum. The site where the house once stood is now a vacant lot, and what had been remembered as a frightening neighborhood emergency is being recast by police as an attack carried out from inside the home itself.
Rabb now faces multiple felony charges, including attempted criminal homicide and aggravated arson. Court summaries reviewed by local outlets also describe arson-related counts tied to endangering people and property, along with a charge alleging he caused or risked a catastrophe. Police said Petty separately reported in June 2023 that Rabb violated the protection order and threatened her with a knife, a claim that investigators treated as part of the broader trail of evidence but not the central charge in the explosion case. Online court records reviewed Thursday did not show a plea. Rabb was taken into custody this week after charges were filed on March 9. He was arraigned and ordered held without bail. The next court date is March 18, when prosecutors are expected to present the basic evidence behind the complaint and a judge will decide whether the case should move forward in Allegheny County court. No trial date has been announced.
For now, the case remains at the preliminary stage, but the public timeline has narrowed sharply. A blast that once seemed unexplained is now headed toward a court hearing on March 18, when prosecutors will have to show a judge why the case should proceed.
Author note: Last updated March 12, 2026.