Newlyweds Devastated as Guest Sneaks Out of Wedding to Blow Up Their Home

Couples who were supposed to be celebrating their wedding turned their happiest day into a nightmare when their home was destroyed in an explosion by a wedding guest.

The tragic incident occurred on February 15th, during Valentine’s Day weekend, in the Chicago suburb of Cicero. At the same time, homeowners Tom Davis and Eleni Vrettos were exchanging vows nearby, an explosion tore through their home.

During the investigation, authorities discovered the body of 31-year-old Anthony Avila-Puebla, who had gone missing during the ceremony. Family members at the scene confirmed that Anthony disappeared earlier in the day.

Police later determined that Anthony had been in a relationship with someone living in the house. CCTV footage captured him arriving and parking just half a block away from the property before carrying jugs of what appeared to be flammable liquid inside.

As the investigation unfolded, authorities revealed that Anthony had entered the house and deliberately set a fire but never made it back out. The explosion occurred at 4:50 PM, causing severe damage to two buildings.

At the time of the explosion, all family members were present at the wedding event, making the tragedy even more devastating.

Speaking about the shocking incident, Eleni Vrettos’ neighbor said: “I ran here in my wedding dress, like down the alley, and was watching from a neighbor’s yard,

“Everything was just smoke at that point.

As a result of the explosion, 11 people from different families were displaced, leaving them without a home.

The groom, Tom Davis, shared that at the time of the explosion, their six pet cats—Bambi, Graham, Reya, Tucker, Old Boy, and Grey—were inside the house and are now missing.

“They were the perfect little bunch, like they all got along. I thought I would have them for years, they were all much younger, and they were my home I would say,” Vrettos said to the WGN

She added: “So now I don’t have a home and on top of it, I don’t have them as my home,”

“That’s the most devastating because they’re the ones that give me the comfort through that darkness. My dad passed away a few years ago so we don’t have the home as a remembrance of him, too.”

According to Eleni Vrettos, the house that was destroyed in the explosion was not just a home—it was the place she grew up in and had been in her family for 40 years.

“Yeah, I grew up here, so I live– lived here, and I work in the community.

“And I mean, Cicero is all I really know.” She said

“We were doing renovations on the house,” Davis told WLS. “We were going to make the bottom portion of it commercial and rent it out, perhaps as a storage unit while we lived up top.”