The husband and wife who own and run the Sundara Day Spa in Berlin intentionally set the building ablaze, with a family of four living in an upstairs apartment, rather than go out of business and file for bankruptcy, police said in an affidavit made public Thursday.
The couple living in that apartment made it out along with their two small children, and now the owners of the spa are facing criminal charges.
Police say the scheme was figured out thanks to footprints left in snow and video surveillance footage from nearby businesses.
Kristopher and Lesilee Kirby, both of East Montpelier, each pleaded not guilty Thursday in Washington County criminal court in Barre to charges of first-degree arson of an occupied dwelling.
Court records state Lesilee Kirby, 48, owned the spa business while Kristopher Kirby, 47, ran the operation. They were each ordered held on $5,000 bond.
Washington County Deputy State’s Attorney Kristin Gozzi asked for $10,000 bond due to the serious nature of the crime.
Avi Springer, a public defender representing Kristopher Kirby, and James Martino, a public defender representing Lesilee Kirby, argued in court that their clients had long ties to the community and were not risks to flee.
Judge Mary Morrissey said the serious punishments facing the the couple and their financial woes increased the likelihood they would try to leave town.
Firefighters were called to the blaze at 6:48 p.m. Sunday at the spa located along Route 2 in Berlin. Arriving firefighters saw heavy smoke coming from the first floor of the business, court records stated, and had to break a window in order to get in.
Vermont State Police Detective Sgt. Todd Ambroz wrote in an affidavit in support of the charges that firefighters quickly determined the blaze was suspicious due to a strong smell of gasoline and a partially burned plastic gasoline container inside.
Ambroz said his later investigation revealed what appeared to be a trail of gasoline that had been poured down a hallway, based on the low level of burning on the wooden baseboards.
“As I made my way to the room at the end of this hallway, the odor of gasoline became much stronger,” the detective wrote. Inside that room, Ambroz said he found the partially burned plastic gasoline container.
The tenant of the upstairs apartment told police he was home at the time of the fire with his girlfriend and two children, ages 7 and 2. The tenant said he felt the building shake and heard an “explosion,” thinking that a plow truck had struck the building.
After discovering the fire in the business below, the tenant yelled for family to get out and then called 911, the affidavit stated.
Police said at the fire scene, both Kirbys reported that they didn’t store gasoline in the business and didn’t know where that container would have come from. However, they did say that they recently fired an employee who was consistently late.
The next day, Monday, police discovered that a video footage from outside a bowling alley which faces the spa showed a man leaving the business at about 6:42 p.m. Sunday through a side door and going around the rear of the building, Ambroz wrote in the affidavit.
The detective wrote he went to the rear of the building and saw only one set of footprints in the snow. He followed the footprints all the way to a nearby Price Chopper grocery store parking lot, the affidavit stated. The footprints stopped at the edge of the paved lot.
Video footage from the grocery store showed that at about 5:45 p.m. Sunday a Honda Ridgeline truck drove into the lot and parked, with a hooded person getting out and walking into the snow heading to where the fire took place, the detective wrote.
At about 7 p.m. Sunday, a hooded person is seen in the video walking back along the same path, get in the vehicle and leave, according to the affidavit.
A check of state Department of Motor Vehicle records, the detective wrote, revealed that Kristopher Kirby owns a 2007 Honda Ridgeline.
Police contacted the Kirbys and interviewed them again, separately, at the Berlin Police Department on Wednesday evening.
Kristopher Kirby told investigators on the night of the fire he was running errands, listing several businesses he stopped in, before going home where he received a call notifying him of the blaze, the affidavit stated.
Ambroz wrote that when started asking the husband pointed questions about how he paid for specific purchases, Kirby started to appear nervous, with beads of sweat forming on his forehead and his hand trembling.
“I explained to him I thought there was a lot more to this story and I have video surveillance from area businesses that proved he wasn’t telling the truth,” the detective wrote. “Kirby sat back in his chair, sighed heavily, and said at this point I think I need a lawyer.”
Lesilee Kirby, when questioned by investigators, was also confronted with information about the videos, the affidavit stated. She then told detectives the business was struggling financially and her husband did not want to file for bankruptcy.
She added that a few weeks ago they joked about burning the place down, and then the talk became more serious, the affidavit stated.
Lesilee Kirby also told her husband to leave his cellphone at home when he went to start the fire because police track it by GPS, Ambroz wrote.
“She also said that Kristopher was suffering from PTSD because when he lit the gasoline inside the spa, the fire spread so quickly he was actually inside and couldn’t get out,” the affidavit stated.
“He was afraid he was going to die inside,” she also told investigators. “He eventually made it out of the side door of the spa.”
If convicted, they each face up to 10 years in jail.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Couple charged with burning down spa with family of four living upstairs.