'God Wanted Apartment To Burn Because Landlord Had Done Illegal Things,' Lindsay Rozner Tells Police

CREST HILL, IL — Lindsay Marie Rozner, the 40-year-old woman from Wilmington who has remained behind bars since police nabbed roaming around her hometown on Sept. 13, now faces three counts of arson for a dangerous fire in August at the Crest Hill condominium building where Rozner faced eviction, according to court files.

Joliet Patch remains the only news outlet that consistently covers Joliet area stories from the Will County Courthouse building and this is another Rozner exclusive.

In recent days, Will County's State's Attorney's Office filed aggravated arson and two residential arson counts against her.

"Defendant set fire within the condo she rented after getting a two-month notice regarding terminating the lease," prosecutors outlined. "The fire was set in different areas of the condo and caused significant damage. The unit defendant set fire to was the ground unit of a three-floor, four-unit-per-floor condominium building and as such her conduct threatened the infliction of great bodily harm to all the residents within the building.

"Defendant not only set fire, but then fled in a taxi," prosecutors continued. "Defendant appears to have mental health issues. There are no less restrictive means as the defendant was on GPS ankle monitoring at the time of this crime."

The Crest Hill Fire August 9

On Sunday, Aug. 9, at 9:11 p.m., Crest Hill police and Lockport Township firefighters rushed to 2331 Bicentennial Avenue for the condominium building on fire in unit 4, the unit where Rozner lived, prosecutors noted.

Rozner was recently issued a 30-day notice to vacate, and she made comments about the landlord harassing her for damaging the sliding door she had broken which Rozner maintained she would not pay to repair, court records stated.

The day after the fire she was in Grundy County's Jail on an unrelated case. During her police interview, she told Crest Hill police how she had crackheads over to her unit on the date of the fire and "felt bad for them and offered them to come over to shower and change clothes and get relief from the streets," court files show. "She said it was a female and two guys. Instead of showering, the male and female smoked crack in the bathroom and (she) got upset they were doing drugs in her home and she went outside to call Crest Hill PD who later arrived."

The police arrived around 6:10 p.m., cleared the scene and Rozner returned to her condo. Officers spoke with Christopher Bayuk who said that Rozner "had his bandana and he wanted it back and called Christopher an Indian giver ... He said he is homeless and she offered to let him sleep and shower at her apartment and while in the shower she came in and picked up his clothes and washed them," prosecutors revealed. "The only intimate action was they kissed on the lips. He said earlier in the day they went to Portillo's to eat and (Rozner) invited two other homeless people over to shower, they came over, showered and left."

Around the time of the condo building arson, prosecutors noted that Rozner Googled American Taxi, the taxi service that took her to the Marathon gas station in Braidwood where she paid the driver $60 cash. From there, a Good Samaritan gave her a ride to the house of Joseph Hollis in Godley.

"Defendant denied having any knowledge of or involvement in the fire," court files reflect.

Then, the next day, things changed.

Crest Hill police interviewed her by phone and she revealed how she had matches in her apartment and officers obtained Flock camera footage and data from her GPS ankle bracelet that revealed how she left apartment in Crest Hill at 8:41 p.m. The American Taxi driver from Joliet told police how Rozner ran up to his Toyota Prius and knocked on the window, saying, "Go, go, Go! Let's go, let's go, let's go," she repeated upon getting inside the taxi.

As for 32-year-old Joseph Hollis of East Mesa Drive in Godley, the police learned Rozner stayed at his place the night of the arson in Crest Hill and "he was not aware she was coming over. She just showed up," court records reflect.

Rozner Chosen As Jesus Christ's Daughter

On Sept. 18, Lockport Township Fire arson investigator Jason Pytlewski interviewed Rozner inside the Will County Jail where she was already being detained under the SAFE-T-Act on unrelated charges.

"She said her dad is God and her dad set it on fire. She was chosen as Jesus' daughter and put through 7 years of tribulations. She said she was called and told to do it and she never did anything like this in her life. God wanted the apartment to burn because the landlord has done illegal things," the court files pointed out. "She said she is told to do things and she just does them because it's God and God is in control of everything. She said God specifically told her what to do: light the lighter fluid and light the matches and leave and that is what she did. She acted out squeezing a lighter fluid bottle and said she then lit the matches and threw them.

"She said God talks to her through people and the radio, movies and TV. She gets downloads straight to her head," prosecutors outlined.

On page 12 of the court file for the three arson charges, prosecutors noted "she did not want to hurt anyone, and she knew there were people upstairs, two little kids, and it scared her, but she knew God is control so everything would be OK."

Here's How Lockport Fire Knew This Was Arson

In filing their most recent SAFE-T-Act detention petition against Rozner, Will County's prosecutors explained that the arson investigator indicated the fire was incendiary. The first area of origin was the mattress and head of the bed in the main bedroom and the second area of origin was the carpet in the second bedroom.

The main entrance and patio slider doors were locked and needed to be forced open by the firefighters. The electrical appliances and artificts were ruled out as the potential fire cause and nothing was plugged into the outlets near the fire areas. Arson investigators found matches in both bedrooms and a bottle of charcoal lighter fluid in the main bedroom floor and "the cause appears to be an open flame ignition source to available combustables and ignitable liquids," court files show. "Evidence samples tested positive for medium petroleum distillate and charcoal lighter fluid is a medium petroleum distillate."

Lastly, prosecutors indicated how the Aug. 9 late night fire in Crest Hill left fire damage to the ceiling, wall and carpet and there were other residents living in other units of the condo building who were home at the time of the fire. "The fire damage was within defendant's unit," prosecutors remarked.

In filling out her paperwork of assets and liabilities, Rozner indicated she has no permanent address, is 40, divorced and has two children. She receives $3,600 in wages per month, but she has no employer.

Prosecutors noted that Rozner already has pending criminal cases in Will County from 2025 for criminal trespass as well as a 2025 battery and aggravated assault and a 2026 case involving possession of ammunition without a FOID card. She has several cases that were dismissed as a result of completing military veteran's court including a 2023 domestic battery and a 2022 violation of a protection order, a 2020 disorderly conduct and prosecutors listed several other cases and convictions from Rozner's past including ones from neighboring counties.

Patch reported in the above paragraphs that Rozner was previously placed in the military veteran's court.