Cairo's burning issue, Part 1: Officials believe more than one person involved in scores of fires since 2007

About this series: Since September 2007, Cairo fire officials, with the arson division of the state's fire marshal office, have investigated 59 fires; 48 have been determined to be arson. These cases have been investigated largely by two individuals, one of whom has since retired. Only recently have city officials asked for help from the Illinois State Police; the Cairo Police Department º not been involved. This series looks at the challenges facing investigators, from a law enforcement and resources standpoint.

CAIRO, Ill. -- It's July 2008. It's hot. And Charlie Caldwell has been here before. He's seen this before. On Pine Street, all over in Cairo.

Fire has ravaged properties all over the city. In its historic district on Commercial Street, some behind the high school on Washington Avenue, others on Cairo's main street.

On this day, though, he stands beneath a blackened, nearly collapsed roof at a home on Pine. Caldwell, an arson investigator with the Office of the Illinois State Fire Marshal, goes from room to room sketching and noting damages.

The south portion of the wall is consumed by fire, he writes. The north wall is collapsed. The basement, in the center of the room, has extensive charring to the ceiling. Debris on the floor also sustained substantial charring.

Basically, nearly everything around him is black, a scene familiar to the now-retired arson investigator. At other investigations he's been involved in there was no possibility for examination because the residence or business was reduced to smoldering ash.

There's evidence of arson, but not a lot. There's even less -- if any -- evidence that leads Caldwell, two other investigators from the fire marshal's office and the Cairo Fire Department to a suspect.

"It's easy to say it's arson. It's easy to prove it's arson. But to be able to prove who did it is the real hard part," said John Meyer, Cairo's fire chief.

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Investigators' caseloads keep growing as the fires continue, leaving many wondering if the suspects will ever be caught and how long the fires will continue. Public speculation grows over motive and whether there is a serial arsonist or more than one.

From September 2007 through March 2011, Cairo fire officials, with the arson division of the state's fire marshal office, have investigated 59 fires; 48 have been determined to be arson, according to incident reports the Southeast Missourian obtained from the Illinois fire marshal's office.

Two were labeled as accidental and the others as undetermined, a classification that occurs most often when a structure is burned to the ground, leaving not a speck of evidence to build a case. An arrest warrant was issued Oct. 29, 2008, for one suspect, who investigators connected to fewer than 10 of the fires dating back to September 2007.

According to Meyer and Jeff Farris, Alexander County state's attorney, it's often a tip from the public that'll break a case. "It's usually when someone starts talking that we get the information we need," Meyer said.

It's what led investigators to Shane Harma, a man they say is responsible for a handful of fires on Pine and 22nd streets in 2008. Harma's father contacted Meyer in September 2008 to expose details he knew about the Pine Street fires. Caldwell and Meyer's interview with the man is detailed in an incident report. Caldwell declined the Southeast Missourian's interview requests.

The man and his wife, whose names are redacted in the report, lived at 2203 Pine St. with their son. He said in July there were six fires in a short period at homes near their residence. On one occasion all three were working outside in the yard and his son took lawn trimmings to the back of their house, the man told investigators. After Harma returned, the man said, he saw smoke coming from a neighboring residence.

The following day, after a fire at another home near theirs, the man said his son smelled of smoke. It was odd, he added, because his son didn't smoke tobacco. Harma's father cited other suspicious behavior to investigators, including that his wife and son locked him in his house, only allowing him to sleep in the basement without adequate bedding and food. When the family was scheduled to move to Montana, the man said his wife and son left him in Van Buren, Mo., and they continued with their move.

A warrant was issued for Harma's arrest. Farris said the warrant is still outstanding because Harma is serving time in Montana for similar crimes. Two counts of felony arson are pending in Alexander County.

"It seems as if while in Montana he had a lifetime of charges out there so that I may never be able to get my hands on him and get him back here," Farris said. "That's just the reality of the situation."

Despite the few arson investigations closing, the number of suspected incendiary fires unsolved remains in the double digits and in Illinois there's no limit on how long the case can remain open. Fire officials don't think there is one fire starter but several. Meyer has never thought that there is a serial arsonist among Cairo's residents.

"It's because of the nature of some of them and how some of them were done. Some were similar, but some were not," Meyer said.

Additionally, some of the fires were likely crimes of opportunity, Meyer said. With an arsonist on the loose, he thinks some property owners may have seen that as an opportunity to torch their own home or business.

A Cairo woman, a business owner in the city who lives on 37th Street and requested anonymity, said she agrees.

"I think they're all done for a purpose," she said, citing insurance fraud and the profit that can be made from copper wire or brick stolen from destroyed property. "I don't think there's a pyromaniac around us or anything, but with a suspected arsonist there are people that will use that to their advantage."

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As a paid on-call department with 15 firefighters, the Cairo crew commonly calls in assistance from the Office of the Illinois State Fire Marshal. Investigating suspicious fires on their own would slow the process considerably, Meyer said. Until about a month ago, when Meyer requested help from the Illinois State Police, state arson investigators were the only assistance sought by the Cairo Fire Department. Until recently, local law enforcement hasn't been involved. In an interview earlier this year, Tim Brown, now Alexander County sheriff, said during his years as Cairo police chief he was never asked to assist in a fire investigation. The fire marshal's office took the lead in all the cases, Meyer said.

The office's incident reports indicate three investigators worked the 59 investigations. Caldwell investigated fires at more than 40 scenes, Dave Bandera worked fewer than 15, and Bruce Dahlem investigated one of the incendiary fires.

Meyer said investigators with the Illinois State Police are now assisting with 18 months' worth of arson cases.

"We've used up our local resources trying to do what we can, so I'm reaching out further," Meyer said. "Of course the state has more resources than we do."

Since the Illinois State Police has joined their investigation, Meyer said, he and state police detectives questioned some people and have some persons of interest.

"It's been a long, difficult process. ... I'm very hopeful we'll see some results soon," he said.

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Making an arrest in an arson investigation is difficult -- about one in 20 intentionally set fires results in an arrest -- but prosecuting the suspect, or suspects, may be even more difficult, Farris said. About one in 50 arrests results in a conviction, according to the National Fire Protection Association. In a lot of cases, evidence such as fingerprints, footprints and even the fire's point of origin, is destroyed by fire and prosecutors are left with an investigator's scientific evidence that an accelerant was used on a certain object in the structure.

Farris recalls prosecuting only one arson case. Pristine Henderson, 26, of Oklahoma City is what he would call a "serial arsonist," he said. The case came to his attention in 2005.

"She went down a street or two in [Cairo] and set several fires," he said. "The police actually caught her in the act where she was in a building with an accelerant trying to set both the building and herself on fire."

Court proceedings came to a halt, though, when Henderson was declared unfit to stand trial. After treatment, she was found capable of standing trial, pleaded guilty to two counts of felony arson and was placed on probation. Farris said the court's hope was the woman would seek rehabilitation and pay restitution to the victims. Henderson's probation was revoked in April 2007 when she failed to follow the court's conditions, and she was sent to prison to serve seven years.

In the Illinois criminal code, arson is largely ignored by lawmakers, Farris said. Like many other states, Illinois has focused on harsher penalties for drunken drivers and those convicted of sex offenses. Even in the statute for arson crimes, there's little case law to reflect on, Farris said.

"It gets no attention. The entire article could be put on a half a page here," he said, flipping through a state book of statutes. "There's no crazy enhanced penalty. There's no mandatory sentencing guidelines."

ehevern@semissourian.com

388-3635

Pertinent address:

Cairo, IL

Springfield, IL