LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A woman facing three counts of attempted murder after allegedly setting a mobile home on fire with her roommates inside asked officers to buy her cigarettes during questioning, according to an arrest report 8 News Now obtained.
On March 18, shortly before 2 p.m., Clark County firefighters received a call about a mobile home fire in the 6100 block of Judson Avenue, near Carey Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard. The person who reported the fire told 9-1-1 he saw fire coming out of a window and saw two older women leave the residence, according to the report.
Firefighters entered the mobile home, finding two origin locations for the fire, a rug in the living room and a pillow on a couch in the same room. Inside the home, firefighters found two older women in a bedroom.
One of the women was unresponsive and not breathing, the report stated. Medical personnel took both women to a local hospital where they were in critical, but stable condition.
Fire Investigators spoke to the other two women outside of the home. One of the women told investigators that the couch was on fire and she attempted to put it out and tried to warn the other women in the house before she exited the building, the report stated.
The other woman, identified as Betty Lurenz, 87, initially claimed she was outside when the fire started, but later said she was inside and one of the other women had “flicked a cigarette” at her, according to the report.
Surveillance video of the incident showed Lurenz intentionally starting the fire by lighting a white paper on fire and using it to ignite the rug and the couch, police said. The video then showed her leaving the home without warning any of the other residents, the report stated.
Lurenz told investigators she lived in the home for approximately a year with three other older women. She said that recently the homeowner was withholding her cigarettes and described her cigarette habit as a “drug addiction,” according to the report.
On March 18, Lurenz said she finished making breakfast and saw one of the other residents smoking inside, which violated the house rules. Lurenz said she asked the woman for a cigarette and the woman said no and “flicked the used cigarette” toward her, which landed on the couch.
Lurenz then told police she left the home and five minutes later, the windows of the home blew out from the fire, the report stated. Police then confronted Lurenz with the video that showed her setting the fire.
Lurenz agreed that the video was from in the home and she was the woman in the video, but she denied any knowledge of starting the fire, according to the report.
She told police that when she does not have cigarettes, she can “go crazy.” When asked if the lack of cigarettes caused her to “go crazy” and light the fire, Lurenz said it was “possible, but she didn’t remember.”
At the end of the interview, police asked Lurnez if she had any questions. She asked for someone to run to the store and buy her a pack of cigarettes, the report stated.
Police took Lorenz to the Clark County Detention Center where she faces three counts of attempted murder and one charge of arson in the first degree.
She was released on March 26 on electronic monitoring with the bail conditions of staying out of trouble and having no contact with the victims.
Her next court appearance is scheduled for April 4.