Second Woman Arrested For Setting Body On Fire: St. Pete Police

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — A second suspect accused of setting a woman’s body on fire in a St. Petersburg alley last month was arrested Thursday afternoon, according to a heavily redacted arrest affidavit from St. Pete police.

Julie Heltman Curran, 64, of Pinellas Park was charged with abuse of a dead body, arrest records show.

Her daughter, 30-year-old Cree Daniela Worley, also of Pinellas Park, faces the same felony charge, police said. She was arrested Tuesday night.

The burned body of Heather Elizabeth Olmstead, 31, was found in a trash container in the alley behind 2920 Emerson Ave. S. early in the morning of Aug. 18, police said. St. Petersburg Fire Rescue responded to the call and when the fire was out, they found her body.

The mother and daughter lit Olmstead’s body on fire using a flammable substance, “causing severe damage to (her) body,” according to police records.

Video surveillance footage shows a white Ford pick-up truck registered to Curran pulling away from the burning trash container, her arrest affidavit said.

A cell phone found near Olmstead’s body was linked to a man seen with Curran and Worley about 15 minutes before the fire was reported, according to Worley’s arrest report.

A second man told police the mother and daughter had been to his house to buy crack cocaine on the night of the fire, records show.

He said a man whose cell phone was found was also with the two women, but he remained inside his truck. The second man told police he placed a gas can in the back of the truck, according to records.

St. Petersburg police told Patch the case remains under investigation and there could be additional arrests.