Arkansas woman charged in connection with Loyalsock Township arson fire
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An Arkansas woman has been arrested on felony arson charges in connection with a fire at this time last year that caused extensive damage to her family’s Loyalsock Township home, according to Trooper Nathan Birth, a state police fire marshal.
It was alleged that Alexandrea Sheffield “did counsel and agree to pay another person to cause a fire with the intent to destroy the property in or to collect insurance for the loss,” according to court records.
The fire at 1951 Inverness Road, off of Warrensville Road, was reported just after 7 a.m. on July 5, 2022.
Investigators suspected right away that the fire was intentionally set because there were four different points of origin, Birth said in an affidavit.
One fire was in the living room, another in the kitchen, a third in a crawl space in the basement and a fourth was in the dining room, next to the kitchen, Birth said in the court document.
Birth alleges that Sheffield contacted an acquaintance and asked the individual “to help her in burning her home down in exchange for insurance funds (obtained) after the fire,” the affidavit stated.
No one was home at the time of the fire, officials said.
The house was owned by Sheffield and her husband, and at the time, the couple was moving to Arkansas. On the morning of the fire, the house was up for sale, having been on the market less than two months, according to published reports.
Sheffield, 40, of Pangburn, Arkansas, is on probation for shoplifting in Lycoming County.
She was taken into custody late Friday morning while here on another matter, court officials said.
Sheffield was arraigned before District Judge Gary Whiteman on arson resulting in damage to another property, arson with the intent to collect insurance, filing false information to an insurer, and false swearing for providing erroneous information to investigators. She remains locked up in the Lycoming County Prison in lieu of $75,000 bail.
The investigation is ongoing as no one has yet been charged with torching the house, which sustained damage in excess of $100,000.