Chronicle Live
·27 Aug 2026
Woman killed in North East house fire was 'not involved with gangs', brother says
Natalie McDonald, 34, and seven-year-old Valentina Foster died in a house fire in Grangetown near Middlesbrough. McDonald’s brother Josh Kirton described the deaths as senseless and rejected suggestions that she was involved with gangs. Two men have been arrested on suspicion of murder, while police investigate possible links between the fire, a rammed property and a fatal A66 collision that killed two police officers and five young men. Inquests confirmed the victims’ identities and provisional causes of death, and further investigations are continuing into suspected organised crime and related violence in the area.