Arrests Made In Alabama Church Fires
POSTED: 9:44 am CST March 8, 2006
UPDATED: 10:49 am CST March 8, 2006
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Two college students have been arrested in connection with a string of church fires in Alabama.
According to the Alabama Fire Marshal, the two are students at Birmingham Southern College, and were arrested outside their dorms. One of the men owns a vehicle that matches the description of a vehicle that witnesses had placed at the scene of several of the fires.
A spokesman for Birmingham Southern told NBC 13 the school had been informed of the investigation by authorities, and had been cooperating with officials from the church fire task force.
Ben Moseley, 19 and Russell DuBusk are due to appear in Federal court Wednesday and are expected to be charged with conspiracy and individual counts of arson.
Police are also searching for a third man, Matthew Lee Cloyd, reportedly a student attending the University of Alabama-Birmingham.
According to law enforcement officials, there is footprint and fingerprint evidence from the scene, which they believe link the men to the individual crime scenes.
The Baptist churches in rural parts of the state were burned by arsonists last month. Nine of the fires -- five on Feb. 3 in Bibb County and four on Feb. 7 in west Alabama - have been linked. Another church fire on Feb. 11 in Lamar County has been ruled arson, but investigators have not determined if it is connected to the others.
A press conference about the arrests will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday, and will include the lead investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives and Federal Bureau of Investigation, law enforcement officials from Bibb, Greene, Pickens, Lamar, Sumter & Tuscaloosa Counties as well as State Fire Marshal Raymond Montgomery, the Birmingham Southern College chief of police, U.S. Attorney Alice H. Martin and Gov. Bob Riley.
Source: http://www.nbc13.com/news/7811631/detail.html
Why the Hell didn't they pick a "thrill" closer to Birmingham? These guy were driving half way across Alabama to burn.
Isn't there psychobabble theory about arsonists being sexually inadequate? Now here's a team of three. What would that imply? Just wondering.