A Michigan man took a 700-mile road trip to set fire to a Pennsylvania home connected to his ex-girlfriend’s online romance.
The blaze left two family dogs dead and nearly took the lives of six people, according to authorities.
Michigan man arrested for arson
The suspect, identified as 21-year-old Harrison Jones from Rockford, Michigan, now faces multiple charges including six counts of attempted criminal homicide, arson, and risking catastrophe.
The incident took place on the morning of February 10 at about 5:22 a.m., when emergency responders from the Bensalem
Township Police Department and Volunteer Fire Department rushed to the scene of a raging fire that was consuming a two-story house.
Six adults living in the home were forced to escape the flames, some resorting to jumping out of second-story windows to save themselves. They were all hospitalized for injuries sustained in the hazardous escape.
Sadly, the family’s two dogs didn’t make it out. Officials confirmed the fire caused a “total loss” of the property.
“It’s a miracle they all survived,” remarked Bensalem Public Safety Director William McVey during a Monday press conference.
He credited the mother of the house with taking quick, decisive action to keep her family alive.
Investigators believe the fire was no accident. Describing it as “intentionally set and incendiary in nature,” authorities opened an intensive investigation. Surveillance footage acquired from another home in the area captured some telling evidence.
Detectives noted a black sedan near the residence at approximately 5:01 a.m. that morning.
According to a police statement, “A subject exits the vehicle with an object and walks towards the residence. After approximately 15 minutes, the subject appears to run back to his waiting vehicle and departs the area.”
As the suspect drove off, “smoke could be seen billowing up from the rear yard of the home, and within 30 seconds, a large explosion was observed, and the house became engulfed in flames,” the statement explained.
Michigan man tracked down by CCTV footage
Investigators tracked the suspect’s 2021 Volkswagen Passat with intersection surveillance cameras and an automated license plate reader. Results pointed to Michigan as its place of registration.
While interviewing the victims, detectives uncovered that one of the young men living in the home had been involved in an online relationship with a woman from Michigan.
The woman had reportedly planned to travel to Bensalem for an in-person meeting with him this month.
Records cited by WTXF-TV indicated that Jones might have been expected to drive his ex-girlfriend to meet her digital love interest.
Apparently, though, Jones drove to Pennsylvania solo, harboring what investigators described as “murderous intentions.”
Bensalem Police coordinated with law enforcement in Kent County, Michigan, who obtained a search warrant for a local address.
Upon questioning Jones, authorities noticed he “had what appeared to be burns on his arm.” They also located a black Volkswagen Passat at the scene.
Jones, identified as the former boyfriend of the Michigan woman, was apprehended by the Kent County Sheriff’s Department days later.
Extradition proceedings are currently underway to transfer Jones back to Pennsylvania.
Young killer sentenced for slaying romantic rival with sword
Meanwhile, in an unrelated gruesome incident unfolding in Florida, a young man stood in court Tuesday to face charges of having murdered his romantic rival with a sword.
Andre Clements, aged 20, received a 40-year prison sentence after confessing to charges of murder, evidence tampering, and conspiracy to commit murder, per a report by NBC Miami.
The crime, taking place in 2021, also saw two teenage girls—Christie Parisien, 17, and Jaslyn Smith, 16—entangled in the violent act.
Prosecutors revealed that Parisien had lured the victim, Kori Grant, into a stairwell where Clements and Smith ambushed him. Clements brutally attacked Grant with a blade, resulting in the latter’s death.
Both teenage accomplices, however, claimed they had not anticipated such a violent outcome. “I didn’t think he meant, like, actual murder,” Parisien told detectives during questioning on October 23, 2021.
Separately, Smith told investigators, “Andre told me that somebody had pissed him off, or somebody that was messing with somebody else’s girl or something—it had to do with some type of chick—and that he was upset and that he needed some backup for a fight,” during a police interview conducted with her mother on October 19, 2021. “He told me it was just a fight,” she added.
Both girls entered guilty pleas that included charges for second-degree murder, evidence tampering, and conspiracy to commit murder.
Each received sentences of 25 years in prison for their roles in the fatal attack.
