Interracial Couple’s House Explodes, Swastika Found On Scene

Swastika
An Ohio family’s house exploded last week in what police are investigating as a possible hate crime after finding a swastika spray-painted on the garage, the Cleveland Jewish News reported.
The house of Brad and Angela Frase in Sterling, 50 miles south of Cleveland, exploded at around 12:50 a.m. on August 8, according to the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department. The Frases were not present, having moved to a hotel after an electrical fire in the house in early July.
On August 5, three days before the explosion, neighbors called the fire department to report the smell of natural gas at the abandoned house. “The Sterling Fire District was first called to the residence on Monday (Aug. 5) after an unknown suspect(s) unsuccessfully attempted to ignite the home by filling it with natural gas and turning the stove burner on,” Sterling Fire Chief Josh Glessner said in a statement. “However, the gas and electric utilities had previously been disconnected.”
After the explosion on the 8th, police discovered a swastika and a spray-painted racial slur on the detached garage.
Brad Frese is white and Angela Frese is black. It is not known if either of them are Jewish, the Cleveland Jewish News reported.
“Our goal is to get to the truth of the matter,” said Capt. Doug Hunter of the sheriff’s department. “It would be improper to place a timeline on those who are doing the investigation.”
Aiden Pink is the deputy news editor of the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @aidenpink
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 2
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 3
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
- 4
Opinion Is this new documentary giving voice to American Jewish anguish — or simply stoking fear?
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Trump’s plan to enlist Elon Musk began at Lubavitcher Rebbe’s grave
-
Film & TV In this Jewish family, everybody needs therapy — especially the therapists themselves
-
Fast Forward Katrina Armstrong steps down as Columbia president after White House pressure over antisemitism
-
Yiddish אַ בליק צוריק אויף די פֿאָרווערטס־רעקלאַמעס פֿאַר פּסח A look back at the Forward ads for Passover products
קאָקאַ־קאָלאַ“, „מאַקסוועל האַוז“ און אַנדערע גרויסע פֿירמעס האָבן דעמאָלט רעקלאַמירט אינעם פֿאָרווערטס
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.