Probe finds California fire was started to cover up a murder
SAN FRANCISCO: A California fire that killed two people last year was intentionally set to cover up a murder, investigators have now revealed.
The Markley Fire was started in California’s Solano County on August 18, 2020 near where police found the burned body of 32-year-old missing person Priscilla Castro.
Authorities had previously said Castro was reported missing after she went on a date with Victor Serriteno two days before the fire. She was not seen again.
“Based on an extensive, eightmonth investigation, we believe Serriteno deliberately set the Markley Fire in an attempt to conceal his crime,” Tom Ferrara, the Solano County Sheriff, said.
Serriteno, who was arrested in September and accused of killing Castro, now faces additional charges of arson and the murders of both men - 82-yearold Douglas Mai and 64-year-old Leon Bone - who died in their homes as a result of the fire. The Markley Fire merged with a series of other fires to form the LNU Lightning Fires, one of the largest wildfires in the state’s history, according California’s forestry department.
The other fires were believed to have been sparked after nearly 11,000 lightning strikes hit the northern part of the state as it endured a historic heatwave.
Collectively, all the fires scorched over 363,000 acres across California’s wine country and destroyed over 1,500 homes, after forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents. The deadly inferno tore through the area north of San Francisco for two months and killed six people.