A 35-year-old Columbus woman is facing two felony arson charges after investigators say she set fire to two homes and a truck hours apart on Thursday night, then turned herself in the next morning at a downtown restaurant. Ashley Perez had previously owned one of the burned properties and currently owned the other, according to authorities, a detail investigators say helped tie the two fires together.
The first fire broke out around 9:30 p.m. Thursday in the 1300 block of 10th Street, where the Columbus Fire Department and Columbus Police Department responded to reports of a possible structure fire, according to Fox 59. First responders found flames coming from a window of the home and also discovered a truck engulfed in flames nearby. Responding Columbus Police Department officers used a handheld portable fire extinguisher to largely knock down the burning truck before fire crews arrived with heavier equipment, as reported by Korn Country 100.3. Firefighters extinguished both the house fire and the truck fire, and police confirmed nobody was inside the 10th Street home at the time.
Roughly two hours later, around 11:45 p.m., authorities received a report of a second structure fire, this time in the 5400 block of South Jonesville Road, in unincorporated Bartholomew County outside city limits. Officers and firefighters at both scenes reported smelling gasoline, which led them to suspect the fires had been intentionally set. First responders extinguished the second fire as well, and police say neither incident resulted in any reported injuries.
Multi-Agency Probe Links the Two Scenes
Fire investigators from five separate agencies — the Columbus Police Department, Columbus Fire Department, Indiana Department of Homeland Security State Fire Marshal's Office, Bartholomew County Sheriff's Office, and Bartholomew County Fire Inspector — worked together to determine the two fires were connected, according to The Republic. Investigators determined that Perez currently owned the 10th Street home and had previously owned the South Jonesville Road property, according to authorities.
That kind of cross-jurisdictional response isn't unusual for Bartholomew County, where the 10th Street site sits within Columbus city limits while the South Jonesville Road property lies in unincorporated county territory. Public safety in the county relies on around-the-clock coordination between the Columbus Police Department and the Bartholomew County Sheriff's Office for incidents that cross those city and county lines, per the Purdue University Annual Security Report. State fire investigators, meanwhile, operate under statutory authority granted to the Indiana State Fire Marshal's Office to provide certified origin-and-cause forensic assistance during municipal arson probes, according to the State of Indiana.
Suspect Turned Herself In at Downtown Restaurant
Perez called the dispatch center around 5:30 a.m. Friday and was taken into custody at a restaurant in downtown Columbus, according to Fox 59's reporting. Police say she was preliminarily charged with two counts of arson, both classified as Level 4 felonies, in connection with allegedly setting fire to two homes and a truck.
Fire inspectors estimated $125,000 in damage to the South Jonesville Road home and $20,000 in damage to the 10th Street property, bringing the combined damage total to $145,000. That figure represents more than half the value of a typical local home — the median home sale price in Bartholomew County reached $275,000 in June, as Hoodline previously reported on Sawin Drive annexation.
What Level 4 Felony Charges Could Mean
Under Indiana Code § 35-43-1-1, arson becomes a Level 4 felony when someone knowingly or intentionally damages a dwelling without consent, damages property in a way that endangers human life, or causes at least $5,000 in financial loss — a threshold the estimated damage in this case far exceeds. A Level 4 felony conviction in Indiana carries a sentencing range of two to 12 years in state prison per count, with an advisory sentence of six years and fines of up to $10,000, according to McNeely Law. With two counts filed, Perez faces a maximum exposure of up to 24 years if convicted on both.
The charges could have been more severe had anyone been hurt. Level 4 arson charges escalate to a Level 3 felony if a fire causes bodily injury and to a Level 2 felony if it causes serious bodily injury, per Indiana criminal statutes cited by FindLaw. Because no injuries were reported at either scene, the charges against Perez remained at the Level 4 tier.
The case stands out against Columbus's reputation as an unusually safe community. Public safety data published this month show Columbus recorded just seven reported violent crimes per 100,000 residents based on FBI statistics, a baseline Hoodline detailed in its recent coverage of Columbus's ranking as America's safest retirement city. Felony suspects arrested in Bartholomew County are typically booked at the Bartholomew County Jail in Columbus pending initial court hearings and bond determinations by county judges, and Perez's case is expected to follow that same process as it moves through the courts.
