PEA RIDGE — Flames lit the dark night sky as Ashley Bangs drove along winding Gann Ridge Road in the valley near Gary Fletcher Road. She turned to look and saw flames engulfing a house.
Bangs said she drove out of the steep valley to gain telephone reception and dialed 911 to report the fire.
Pea Ridge firefighters were dispatched, but the house was destroyed.
Just up the hillside, Gary Fletcher and his wife, were awakened by their dog barking. Fletcher had built the house, now owned by his grandson, in 1995 on the site of a much-older log house at 14985 Gary Fletcher Road.Just a year and a half ago, he sold it to his grandson, Jeremiah Cotton.
The two-bedroom, one bath house was the first home of newlyweds Jeremiah and Samantha Cotton. They had a jar with money in it they were saving for a trip to celebrate their upcoming first anniversary.
But that’s destroyed.
Family members sifted through the ashes and rubble Sunday, looking for anything left
The couple was not at home at the time of the fire, but returned to find all their belongings gone.
The Benton County Sheriff’s Office and the Benton County fire marshall are investigating the incident. Samples have been sent to the Arkansas Crime Lab.
Lester Dale Dover, 38, of Pea Ridge, was arrested Sunday, Feb. 28, on felony charges of terroristic threatening in the first degree by the Benton County Sheriff’s Office. Dover was reported to have threatened to burn the house.
On the Record, Pages 3 on 03/03/2010