Latest Arson Headlines
All the headlines from our Arson Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Three Charged in $700K Maryland Arson
Jan 22 2009 // Police in Pocomoke City, Maryland have made three arrests in connection with an October fire that caused more than $700,000 damage to a municipal building. Twenty-two-year-old Nicholas Depaolis, his 19-year-old brother...
Alabama Arson Suspect Lunceford Faced Foreclosure, Federal Agents Say
Jan 13 2009 // Witnesses testified that businessman and former Auburn University’s punter Tommy Lunceford Jr. was in a dispute with a couple leasing his Gulf Shores (Alabama) restaurant and faced foreclosure when the building...
FBI Reports Drop in Crime Including Arson
Jan 12 2009 // The nation experienced a 3.5 percent decline in violent crime and a 2.5 percent decline in property crime for the first six months of 2008, according to the federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Violent crime was down in...
Former Auburn Punter Lunceford Charged with Restaurant Arson
Jan 9 2009 // Federal agents have arrested and charged former Auburn University punter Tommy Lunceford Jr. with arson, obstruction of justice and intimidating law enforcement officers in a fire that destroyed his restaurant building in...
Australian Wife Charged with Murder for Setting Husband on Fire
Jan 7 2009 // An Australian woman in Adelaide has been charged with murder after allegedly setting her husband’s genitals on fire because she thought he was having an affair. Prosecutors told the Adelaide Magistrates Court on...
Economic Link Suspected in Maine Arson Fires
Dec 30 2008 // Maine’s fire marshal says a rise in arson fires is likely related to the slumping economy. State figures thus far this year show 134 confirmed incendiary, or arson, fires representing $8 million worth of property. An...
South Carolina Arson Hotline Tip Solves Arson Case
Dec 17 2008 // A tip to the South Carolina Arson Hotline helped solve a Greenwood home arson case and led to a reward for the tipster, according to officials. Lt. Bobby Shealy of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division said the fire...
Georgia Offers Reward for Leads in Church Arson
Nov 26 2008 // The state of Georgia is offering a $10,000 reward for information that will lead to an arrest and conviction in an arson case in Clarkston where a baptist church was heavily damaged last Sunday night. The blaze gutted the...
South Dakota Man Sent to Prison for Arson
Nov 10 2008 // A Sioux Falls man has been sent to prison for three years for paying a man to burn down his business in order to collect the insurance money. Chad Michael Blair pleaded guilty to conspiracy in May for the 2006 arson of...
Second Suspect Arrested in Louisiana School Fire
Nov 6 2008 // Police have arrested a second suspect in a fire that left a Louisiana high school with an estimated $2 million in damage. A Louisiana State Police spokesman says 30-year-old Steven Warren, of Mount Hermon, was apprehended...
Teen Confesses To Arson in Louisiana Apartment Complex
Nov 4 2008 // A teenager already in custody has been booked with arson in connection with a January fire at the Village Square apartments in Chalmette, La. The sheriff’s office says the teenager, who is now 17 but was 16 at the...
New York Man Faces Insurance Fraud Charges for Suspicious Fire
Nov 3 2008 // An Albany, New York property owner who reportedly fell behind on the mortgage payments for a four-unit apartment building he owns in was arrested for setting fire to the structure just hours after his tenants left the...
Man Arrested for Arson in New Orleans
Oct 31 2008 // Authorities believe a 69-year-old man started a fire that left a New Orleans family homeless and resulted in the injury of a firefighter. Aaron Smith was booked into the Orleans Parish jail Oct. 27 on a charge of simple...
Alabama Governor Offers Reward in Jasper Arson
Oct 30 2008 // Alabama Gov. Bob Riley is offering a $5,000 reward for information that will lead to an arrest and conviction in an arson case in Jasper where a law enforcement officer was the victim. Riley says fires were set to the home...
Illinois Judge Tosses Out Confession in Arson Case
Oct 22 2008 // An Illinois judge has tossed the confession of an East Peoria man accused of setting fire to a Peoria Heights house, ruling it was coerced by police who threatened him with charges of attempted murder. Monday’s...
Authorities Investigating South Carolina Home Fires as Arson
Oct 20 2008 // South Carolina police say a fire that destroyed three houses and damaged two others in Rock Hill is being investigated as an arson. The fire early on the morning of Oct. 17 spread quickly from house to house. Authorities...
Fire at Vacant Delaware Building was Arson
Oct 17 2008 // Fire investigators say a blaze that caused $250,000 damage at a building in Smyrna, Delaware was intentionally set. The fire was reported about 2 p.m. Sunday at the vacant Smyrna-Clayton Sun Times building in the first...
Chicago Pizzeria Owner Accused of Arson for Insurance
Oct 6 2008 // The owner of a Chicago pizzeria has been charged with allegedly hiring a street gang to set fire in 2000 to a building he owned to collect on the insurance. Robert Didiana, owner of the Bacci pizzeria chain, was arrested...
Chicago Pizzeria Owner Accused of Arson for Insurance Payout
Sep 15 2008 // The owner of a Chicago pizzeria has been charged with allegedly hiring a street gang to set fire in 2000 to a building he owned to collect on the insurance. Robert Didiana, owner of the Bacci pizzeria chain, was arrested...
Houston Couple Charged for Insurance Fraud, Deadly House Fire
Sep 5 2008 // A grand jury has indicted a Houston, Texas couple over a 2003 fire that killed their daughter and a boy in an alleged house insurance scheme. Harris County Fire Marshal’s arson investigator Lonnie Blevins said...
