Editor’s note: This article is by Andrew McKeever, of the Manchester Journal, where a longer version was first published June 9, 2015.
LONDONDERRY — More than 200 area residents overflowed the town hall in Londonderry Monday night, to learn about the progress being made toward solving a mysterious series of suspicious fires and several burglaries.
Vermont State Police are offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of someone in any of the more than a dozen arson cases that have occurred in the area over the past 10 years, with the most recent one on May 5. All of the fires remain under investigation.
Keith Flynn, the state’s commissioner of public safety, sought to reassure the audience that every effort was being made to crack the case, and asked for their patience, along with their assistance.
“It is not something that’s become stagnant or filed in the back room; this is something that we are continuing to look at and we will continue to look at this until an arrest is made,” he said. “There will be an arrest made and it will happen. The person or persons will be held responsible.”
Vermont State Police officials also cautioned that they could not reveal all they knew about possible suspects or information they had to avoid compromising the investigation and the state’s ability to prosecute.
The meeting was organized by state Rep. Oliver Olsen, I-Londonderry, in response to the concerns and unease that had spread through the area following the long string of fires and burglaries without apparent resolution by law enforcement.
The burglaries and break-ins that had spiked around Londonderry were not unique to the area as many other communities around the state wrestled with the problem of opiate and heroin addiction, which he flagged as the primary driver of home break-ins.
The history of the fires and burglaries does not exclusively point to specific groups of people, such as part-time residents or the elderly, who might be seen as more vulnerable, or specific geographic areas, said state police Sgt. Steve Otis, in response to one questioner.
“There are some generalities about these fires over the past 10 years that make them somewhat similar,” he said. “(But) things change. Motivations change. Issues change. So for me to stand up here and say one specific area, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I gave you specifics like that.”
During a three month period from August to November of 2011, five fires deemed suspicious were fought in Londonderry, two of them along a stretch of Under The Mountain Road. Two of the fires claimed major damages to homes, others were less severe. A sixth fire that August destroyed the base lodge of the former Snow Valley Ski Area in Winhall, which closed in 1984, and was considered suspicious at the time.
The meeting was not only a chance for law enforcement officials, who included, along with Flynn and Otis, Windham County State’s Attorney Tracy Shriver, Lt. Col. Matt Birmingham of the state police, Sgt. Anthony French from the state police barracks at Rockingham, and Windham County Sheriff Keith Clark, to update area residents on the investigations but to seek their support and possible help, Olsen said at the outset of the meeting, which lasted about 90 minutes. The public needed to know what was going on and have a chance to ask questions as well as get advice on how to protect their property, Olsen said before the start of the meeting.
Being a good neighbor was one piece of advice Birmingham offered the residents.
“Anything that is suspicious, you should be reporting to the police,” he said. “It may seem insignificant at the time but for us it may be the key to solving a crime. Watch neighbors and patterns and check to seeing if things are out of sorts.”
