Arson suspected in two of three recent fires

Published 4:41 pm Friday, July 19, 2019

MOULTRIE, Ga. — Colquitt County law enforcement responded to a variety of fires earlier this week.

Donna Lee Hodnett, 900 block Sam Rentz Road, Norman Park, received a text message about 4 p.m. July 14 through an app that hides the sender’s name. It said, “Hope you like your car.”

She went outside and saw smoke coming from inside the passenger compartment of her 2017 Chevrolet Cruz.

She found someone had set fire to some papers on the floorboard of the passenger side of the car. Damage to the vehicle was minimal.

Hodnett told the deputy she saw a white truck sitting in the roadway near her mailbox, and it drove off while she was looking at her vehicle.

Beverly Peterson, 3200 block Sylvester Drive, called 911 about 8:25 p.m. July 13 when she saw smoke coming from the chimney of the house next door, which was supposed to be vacant.

A Colquitt Regional EMS ambulance was around the corner and heard the call over the radio, Colquitt County Sheriff’s Investigator Ronald Jordan said. One of the ambulance crew is also a volunteer firefighter and was able to extinguish a small fire in the fireplace.

The sheriff’s department report on the incident said rags and other items had been set on fire in the fireplace, and lighter fluid had been sprayed all over the floor.

The house belongs to Mark Nash, of Tampa, Fla.

Freddie Scott, 1300 block Highway 319 N., Norman Park, told deputies July 14 he had worked all night on the night shift. About 5:30 p.m. he was cooking dinner. He had french fries frying on the stove when he fell asleep on the couch.

Scott said his dog’s barking woke him up and he saw smoke in the house. He ran out and used a neighbor’s phone to call 911.

When the deputy arrived, he found a lot of smoke coming from the roof of the house but he didn’t see any flames.

Volunteer firefighters put out the fire. The deputy didn’t know the extent of damage at the time of his report.