November 24, 2020
By: Dwayne Page
An Alexandria man believed to have been responsible for a rash of fires in the western portion of the county in August and September has been indicted by the DeKalb County Grand Jury.
37 year old Joshua David Pitman of Pitman Road, Alexandria was named in a sealed indictment last week charging him with three counts of arson and three counts of setting fire to personal property. He is under a $60,000 bond and will be arraigned in criminal Court December 8.
The case was investigated by Sheriff Patrick Ray said Detective Brian Williams with assistance of the Fire Investigation Unit of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
During August and September, investigators learned that someone had been setting fires to abandoned houses, mailboxes, and a barn in the Lower Helton, Walker Creek, Jackson Hollow, Oakley Hollow, and Hickman Road.
A grainy surveillance video captured one of the mailbox arsons in progress at 10:51 p.m. September 7 on Walker Creek Road and a vehicle believed to be a light colored Nissan Altima could be seen in the video along with a suspect. Three other mailboxes were burned the same night, including another on Walker Creek Road, one on Hickman Highway, and one on Lower Helton Road along with a barn filled with rolls of hay and farm equipment on Lower Helton Road.
According to Sheriff Ray the 40’ x 60’ barn had an estimated value of $20,000 and sheltered 25 rolls of hay, a 6640 Ford tractor valued at $20,000, a 585 hayroller worth $10,000, and a 5408 New Idea disk mower valued at $2,500. All were destroyed. The fire also damaged a 489 hay bine worth $2,000 and a hay rake valued at $2,000. The barn and farm equipment were owned by separate individuals.
The abandoned houses were burned on the night of August 27 or early morning August 28 on Oakley Hollow Road and the night of September 6 or early morning September 7 on Jackson Hollow Road. Neither home had anything of value within nor any electricity. The value of the home on Oakley Hollow Road was estimated at $15,000 and the value of the house on Jackson Hollow Road is unknown.