Days after Donna Runion allegedly set fire to her mobile home while her husband was sleeping inside, a second area woman has reportedly committed a similar crime.
Cathleen Mae Butterson, 32, 132 Copas Road, Gray, faces several charges after she allegedly poured gasoline in a hallway of her mobile home and then set it on fire while her boyfriend, Derrick C. Groff, 33, of the same address, was asleep inside the home early Friday morning.
"Then she started another fire out on the porch by the gas can as she left," said Washington County Sheriff Ed Graybeal.
After setting the blazes, Butterson took her 5-month-old child and fled the scene, taking Groff's 1994 Chevrolet Blazer along with $300 and some of his medications, police said.
The infant was reportedly not inside the home when the fire started.
"She had the child with her. From what we can determine, the child was never in any danger from the fire," Graybeal said. "The child has been placed into protective child services."
Butterson was found about 8 a.m. at the Johnson Inn, West Market Street, where she was arrested and charged with attempted first-degree murder, aggravated arson, theft of a motor vehicle, theft under $500, and violation of an order of protection.
Butterson had taken out an order of protection on Groff in March, which she was charged with violating by going to the home Friday, Graybeal said. Once an order of protection is obtained, both parties - the individual who took the order out and the individual upon which it was served - must obey the order and can be charged if they do not, Graybeal explained.
"Apparently they had been having some problems, I think," Graybeal said. "She told investigators she was scared of him."
Groff was not seriously injured in the fire, Graybeal said.
"From what I understand, the smoke detector finally woke him, and he got out and called 911," he said.
Butterson is scheduled to appear at a bond hearing Monday in sessions court in Johnson City.
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