- Author
-
Stambaugh, H.
- Title
- Grems Case: How an Arson Case Was Solved and Prosecuted in Colorado. USFA Fire Investigation Technical Report Series.
- Coporate
- TriData Corp., Arlington, VA
- Sponsor
- Federal Emergency Management Agency, Washington, DC
- Report
-
Report 047
1991
17 p.
- Contract
- EMW-90-C-3338
- Keywords
-
fire investigations
|
arson
|
explosions
|
explosives
|
automobile fires
|
schools
- Identifiers
- Boulder County Vehicle Bombings, May 17, 1987; Boulder County Gas Station Bombing, June, 2, 1987; Aurora Car Bombing, August 8, 1967; Arapahoe County High School Bombing, August 30, 1987
- Abstract
- For many years the United States Fire Administration has been making available to practitioners, researchers, and students of fire protection, timely reports on our nation's most critical fires and hazardous materials incidents. It is under the major Fires Investigation Report Series that important lessons are documented and shared with the fire service so that we all can learn the best approaches for controlling fire loss and for enhancing firefighter health and safety. This report was reserched and prepared for inclusion in the Fire Investigations Report Series because of USFA's concern over the ominous trends in our country's arson experience. Those trends include an increase in the percentage of residential fire deaths caused by arson, the growing problem of juveniles and their proportionate overrepresentation among arsonists, the use of explosives in set fires, and the ongoing struggle to coordinate investigation duties between police and fire agencies. Any fire investigation unit which has recedntly completed and closed a particularly noteworthy arson case is encouraged to notify the United States Fire Administration by contacting the Major Fire Project Officer. Here the development of the arson case is what is of interest (more than the magnitude of the fire) including investigation approaches, interagency coordination, prosecutor support, and the specifics that led to the final outcome of the case. Case Capsule Three juveniles, friends since childhood, stole explosives from a mine; blew up part of a high school, three vehicles, and a gas station; and set four elementary school fires while eluding fire and police personnel from a region in Colorado for two years. Nicknaming themselves "Grems" after the movie Gremlins, the three often donned camouflage or military fatigues while carrying out their planned "missions." Evidence sent to the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms lab in San Francisco, Calfornia and a taped interview of a juvenile who identified his acquaintances and their crimes, and the sharing of inforamtion among fire investigaiton agencies combined to give officials a break in the case, and ultimately led to unusually stiff sentences for the threesome.