Girlfriend. The deadly attack sent flames tearing through a bucks county county hotel early this morning, firefighters had to rescue several other people staying in that motel. Good evening, im iain page. Im lucy nolan. The details of the attacks beyond disturbing. Fox 29 Joanne Pileggi was there as the suspect walked in to face the judge. Live in the newsroom joanne. Reporter the details of this alleged arson murder difficult to digest. Even for police who deal with these crimes on a regular basis. Investigators say the philadelphia man planned and carried out an unthinkable act. She was burned alive. Reporter cops say that is what happened here at the linc couldnt motel in bensalem. 46yearold melissa bacon smith was burned alive in room 103. Somebody set the fire. Not like a cigarette but lit. Its like somebody did it, luke on purpose. Reporter police tell us thats what took place, they say 46yearold kevin smalls, the victims boyfriend, carried out a vicious plan. He was seen at wawa prior to this event buying gas. He walked back across the street to the lincoln motel. Walked into the room with the gas. And something transpired in the room where he doused the victim with gasoline and set her on fire. Reporter can you tell us what happened . I lost it. Reporter police arent sure of a motive but smalls reportedly said his girlfriend laughed at him in the motel room earlier that night. Cops say smalls called his sister and motherinlaw after it happened and confessed to setting the fire and leaving the motel. We believe she reached out to him and yelled his name and he left her to die. Reporter in the meantime frightened motel guests didnt know what to think describing the chaos of the Early Morning fire. All we heard was the alarm going off, and the lady coming upstairs saying everybody get out. When i came downstairs, all i seen was fire, smoke, coming out. Reporter smalls was arrested early this morning, hes charged with murder, arson, risking a cat it has fi and other crimes. No one else was hurt. There is major damage at that motel. That pails in comparison to the loss of life and the way it happened. On your radar tonight act cool blast. Whats going to get cooler, people breaking out coats and sweatshirts Walking Around center city, definitely felt chilly. Especially with the wind and the temperatures are going to drop. Were talking near freezing from allentown the top right to south philadelphia on the bottom. We can all be down in the 30s by the time you walk out the door tomorrow t kathy, please tell us were going to warm up. We are going to warm up. I dont want to call anybody out off camera but lus, the poconos and. Lehigh valley, berks county, we have a frost vorax were not alone. A lot of the northeast is under the same advisory and warnings. In the Lehigh Valley, were talking about places like Lehigh Valley, allentown, upper millford. Extending into bethlehem. Kutztown and rockland, in berks county. A wide area seeing cold temperatures overnight. We saw a few sprinkles and flurries as far to the north and west of philadelphia. As you can see skies are clear. The temperatures are falling fast. 50 in the city t 43 in pottstown. 35 in the poconos. Little bit of a wind out there out of the west, northwest. 12 miles an hour in philadelphia, 13 miles an hour in the poconos, havent talked about that in month, the windchill in poconos 26, feels like 39 in reading and lancaster. Were talking about morning lows in the 30s to the north and west. Interior south jersey will be right around 40. Mondays record low, mainly in the 30s, many are in jeopardy of being broken. Come the morning. Coming up well talk about more wind in the forecast. Showers return and i will show warmth in that sevenday forecast later in the broadcast. Ill see you then. Thanks. Moving live to wilmington. Make sure youre prepared to start the day with fox 29 weather and traffic authorities from the latest forecast to any problems out there on the roads. Of sue serio and bob kelly got you covered. Secret Service Agents descended upon University City tonight. To political heavy weights are attending the college of arts and as soon ass graduation, joe biden and presumptive donald trump werent focused on the election tonight. To brad sattin live in University City. Brad . Things to finally starting to calm down outside franklin field. University of pennsylvania been around since the days of ben franklin which mean they say put on a few graduations over the year, but tonight then some. Emergency is vehicles over bridges gates around the stadium. Secret service and police everywhere. The focus should have been entirely on penns 1500 had new graduates. You couldnt help feel the buzz with a particular father and grandfather in the crowd. What are the odds a sitting Vice President joe biden to watch his granddaughter. And presumptive nominee donald trump in the audience. When trump came in, there was applause, energy. When biden came in the entire place he rose to its feet. It was great to be behind them. Reporter did you catch a glimpse. We did. We saw biden, trump. It was exciting. Reporter security detail around every turn which did make getting to the ceremony a bit tedious. We had to wait three hours outside. To get through. Reporter they currently hold the currently highest office. Few showers, they were simply spectators. You wouldnt expect them to be with the crowd. They were sitting there like everybody else. They had the secret service. There were no protests, no one was acting out of turn, everyone just wanted everyone to have a pleasant experience. Reporter though opinions dont just vanish for the night. When biden came in everybody stood up and applauded the politician. I like trump but he didnt get that much of an applause when youre donald trump everything you do gets people talking. Trump had his hand like this the whole time because there was a little bit of glare from the sun. Of so he was like it was kind of like he was saluting the whole time. Reporter maybe he was saluting. Donald trump certainly knows his way around here. He graduated from penns Wharton School and by our count at least two of his other kids graduated from penn. Certainly, lucy, these comfortable around campus. Thank you so much, brad. Speaking of big nights and days, hundreds of students from Rutgers Camden are now part of history. They trekked to to new brunsw k brunswick. The first sitting president to delivery a commencement speech. The train was for Rutgers Camden students only the. Did not stop until reaching camden. The grads were pumped for the historic speech. It was an honor they invited the current grads from newark and camden. I was i hope i get to see it on tv or something, knowing that were going to be rutgers alum. Its an honor. President obama delivered the keynote address at the universitys commencement as part of the yearlong celebration of rutgers 250th anniversary. Developing tonight, a warning from the Delaware Department of health. Officials wants patients who went to a wilmington cling to get tested for exposure to hiv and hepatitis, the medical spine and pain center need to contact their Health Care Provider about blood born diseases. In a letter it says it was unable to confirm proper sterilization. Also investigation revealed possible issues with unsafe injections practices and thats when a is shutdown the con cord Medical Center on may 7th grief counsellors will be on university. The teens died in a prom night car crash in morris river township new jersey. Four girls were in the car when it crashed into a tree. The two girls who survived are still in the hospital tonight. New Jersey State Police are investigating what went wrong. The coast guard came to the rescue of a man off the coast of cape may on a boat called its all good this afternoon when he fell and hurt his leg. The coast guard crew went out and escorted the boat and injured man into the Coast Guard Training Center paramedic were standing by. A woman is fighting for her life after someone shot her six times before 12 30 on the 3800 block of north 13th. The woman is now at temple hospital in critical condition. Two men also have gunshot wounds. Theyre both stable. Police have not recovered a gun and dont have a suspect as of yet. Hunting park just an hour later, someone shot man in the back around 1 30 this morning on the 4,000 block of North Franklin when police got to the scene they found a ticksyearold man with a gunshot wound to his back. Of he was taken to temple hospital in stable condition. If you know anything about either shooting, please give police a call. Lawyers for bill cosby are asking for another chance to get his case thrown out. Theyre in front of the state Supreme Court arguing that the current District Attorney cannot go back on the word of his predecessor who promised cosby would never face charges. Cosbys lawyers say he relied on that pledge when he testified in a related lawsuit. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for may 24th unless the Supreme Court tosses out that case. Witnesses call it a case of road rage that quickly gets out of control. Allout brawl in the middle of the street. It doesnt end here. What one of the drivers did next that no one saw coming. Stadium cleared out because of a suspicious package. It was harmless. Who should have known it was there. The whole time. Police say a man was driving when a dozen kilos of drugs in his car. When he definitely did not expect to happen on the road that cops got a call. Attack out in the water. A young woman felt something bite her arm and jumped out of the water but it wouldnt let go. What was still clamped down on her arm . Even if she went to the hospital. Pat toomey started his career as an investment banker. Then, a wall street wheelerdealer overseeing stock trades in new york, london and tokyo. Next, toomey moved to hong kong to work with wealthy chinese investors. In the senate, its no surprise toomeys been siding with wall street. Voting to allow banks to continue making the risky investments that wrecked our economy. Afscme people is responsible for the content of this ad. Big plumes of black smoke near disney world after an suv slammed into a bus headon. Police say the driver veered into oncoming traffic hitting the bus setting off the fire. Medics rushed 11 people to the hospital including the suvs driver and two passengers. Deputies say she will face charges. A bomb scare prompts thousands to evacuate a soccer match in england. Turns out it was false a alarm. Police say a suspicious package was found inside the home stadium foreman chester united today. It was evacuated. Police combed the stadium with bomb sniffing dogs. Conducted a controlled explosion to neutralize the package. Police determined the device was actually a fake bomb that had been left in the stadium from an earlier security exercise. Evacuated fans talked about the scare. A lot of people went. They got us out the of stadium. League officials rescheduled for tuesday. The brewing fire storm over new guidelines from the white house on transgender students. Obama administration is threatening to withhold funding from schools and universities that do not comply. Foxs garrett kevin explain. Reporter new guidance on transgender students. Friday, stated transgender students have full and equal access to facilities and activities based on the gender they identity with. Bathrooms, locker rooms and college dorms. The administration said failing to follow the guidelines could result in federal lawsuits and the loss of millions of dollars in education funding. Now, a growing number of Republican Leaders are expressing their outrage over the new directive. Officials in at least 12 states are vowing to fight it in court. Saying its the latest example of overreach by the obama administration. The policy is vague and we believe unconstitutional. They dont have Statutory Authority or Constitutional Authority to change the statute. That was done by congress and it needs to be changed by congress. This had needs to be a debate in congress, not with the administration unilaterally changing the law. Reporter the white house is defending its actions saying the policy has been in the works years and comes in response to a growing number of School Administrators who were reaching out for to guidance on how to handle the issue. The challenge is not to isolate anybody. Its not to discriminate anybody. Its not to make anybody unsafe. Its to ensure our schools are as inclusive and respectful and safe as they can possibly be. Reporter similar to what were seeing in North Carolina this fight will likely end up be and decided in the courts. Turned deadly at an air show near atlanta in front of a packed crowd. The plane took a nosedive. The pilot died. Authorities say he was the only one on board. Theyre not identifying him until they notify his family. The ntsb is investigating what happened. A community in tennessee is joyous after one big home coming. They gathered to welcome home a little girl who Authorities Say was kidnapped. 9yearold was missing for a week. Police say her uncle took her out of school under false pretenses. At todays homecoming celebration, carli was reunited with the men who rescued her. Carlis dad james says hes overwhelmed by the love and support and thrilled to meet the man who saved his daughter. I made sure i gave them both a hug. Know i love them and appreciate what theyve done. I dont look at stuff on tv but thank god, praise god its an emotional feeling. 57yearold gary simpson faces charges of aggravated kidnapping. A delaware man is in jail charged with his seventh dui after a crash friday. Wilmington police say Richard Chamber land rearended another car. That car was then hit head on, two people had to be taken to the hospital but injuries are not considered lifethreatening. Chamberland now charged with his seventh dui along with vehicular assaults and reckless driving. Testimony will continue on weather jimmy snucka is mentally competent to stand trial for death of his girlfriend, theyve charged him with thirddegree murder an Involuntary Manslaughter in the 83 death of nancy argentino. Hes pleaded not guilty. His defense team says he has early dementia and poverty concussion syndrome. The hearing started last week and expected to continue wednesday. We could learn new details about what caused the deadly amtrak Train Derailment in Port Richmond one year ago. Eight people died, 200 others hurt when the train went off the tracks around a curve last may. The train was going twice the a speed limit for that curve. The ntsb is scheduled to release a new report next week. Victims hurt tell us they want to know why the engineer has not been charged with anything related to the crash. The Art Museum Steps are usually crowded. Today they went to a whole new level. Thousands of people were there to reach and raise. Fox 29 a proud media partner of living beyond breast cancer. Reach and raise is not your typical walk or run for breast cancer. Everyone is together doing yoga on their own level. More than 350,000 was raised at this years event. I will support those in our community affected by breast cancer. We got a slide show on our website with a lot of pictures from reach and raise. If you got pictures from today, we want to see them. Tweet them using the fox 29 fox 29. In Northern Liberties it was about the animals. Hundreds came out to the me yacht is a. Fox 29 dawn timmeney. Citizens for no kill philadelphia works for the community to stop Shelter Animals from being euthanized. A guy wakes up to see crooks with his brand new car. They propped the car up on that could have turned the situation deadly. Shes accused of doing in the thats correct forest and she took pictures of it all. What she did on valentines day. The ntsb will be sending a team to investigate a deadly bus crash on its way to a casino when it rolled over killing eight and injuring 44. The bus Company Involved in the accident had been ordered twice last year to take one of its busses off the road. Its not known if thats the same bus that crashed. Started out as a routines traffic stop near detroit. Until the police k9 picked up a cent, what investigators inside his car, hes a 32yearold man, other drivers were very concerned. Who was he going to distribute it to . The kids . Im taking my son up from the library. Who hands was it going to be put in . I dont know what to say. Police are not saying where the driver was headed or part of a bigger drug operation. We told you friday about a dog in florida bitten by a rattle snake while trying to protect a 7yearold girl. The gofundme account set up to raise money has raised more than 50 thousand dollars. The family said they wont need more donations and were told the dog is doing much better after getting bitten three times by a rattle snake but not out of the woods just yet witnesses call it a case of road rage quicking got out of control. An allout brawl in the middle of street. Doesnt end there. What one of drivers did next no one saw coming. An attack in the young water. A young woman feels something bite her and wont let go. What was clammed down on her arm as she went to the hospital. Were talking about warming up in that sevenday forecast. But before that, we have a little bit of rain moving in with another weather sum that will impact our weather by tuesday. Tracking the cold, showers and the warmup when we come back. Its 10 30. It is cold outside. Its only going to get colder. A live look from reading. Most were in the 40s and could drop another ten degrees by the time you wake up. Kathy orr is tracking just how cold well get, and a warmup still on the way. Recording a situation that got way out of hand. Witnesses called this road rage and you can see kind of blurry, four people standing outside in each others face