Webster Woman Accused Of Setting Fire To Home With Kids Inside

CONCORD, NH — A mother of two faces five charges in Merrimack County Superior Court after being accused of setting a fire inside a Webster home that burned her two children.

Back on Feb. 24, Webster fire and rescue teams and firefighters from across the capital region were called to a fire on Deer Meadow Road with possible residents trapped inside. Quickly upon arrival, firefighters went to work rescuing a woman and two children from the home. All three suffered burns and were taken to hospitals in Massachusetts. More than $26,000 was raised via a GoFundMe.com effort to assist the family.

But after a more than six-week investigation, a different picture began to emerge on what happened that day that led to Mary Elizabeth Corliss, 38, the mother of the two children, being arrested on felony arson and other charges. According to a New Hampshire Fire Marshal's Office affidavit, an investigator accused Corliss of trapping her children inside of a room on the second floor of the home and setting the house on fire.

The investigator spoke to Webster's fire chief, who also works as the town's road agent, and was in the area moving snow around when a witness walking near the home saw smoke coming from the area of the house around 3:30 p.m. He had driven the grader by the house 30 minutes before and reported no problems. But as he arrived later, he saw smoke and saw Corliss at the window of the home and called dispatch.

He entered the house through the kitchen door, encountered dogs, but found no fire. When he went upstairs though, there were "smoke and flames at the top of the stairs." The heat was "too hot for him" without his fire gear on.

Police arrived first, and they, along with the chief, attempted to lift the grader to the second floor as well as a step ladder but were unable to reach Corliss. Webster and Concord firefighters arrived and posted ladders to the window while firefighters went into the house attempting to rescue people from the home.

The first Webster firefighter, a captain wearing a helmet cam, was able to gain access to the second floor and encountered Corliss in a room. Corliss was accused by the firefighter as well as police later of "acting in a manner that made them think she was in a mental health crisis" as well as being "combative with them," the report stated. The helmet cam caught Corliss screaming, "Get the f--- away from me, I've had wormwood, you'll all die," the affidavit stated. The captain accused her of pushing him away when he tried to keep control of her.

Later, she was lowered by a ladder but was accused of grabbing onto the ladder and attempting to keep firefighters from taking her out of the home.

After being led to safety, Corliss was unstable, the report said. When one firefighter stated she was acting crazy, she heard the comment and yelled she was not crazy, the affidavit stated.

As firefighters posted ladders against the building, the children were found.

"(The girl) called out and reached for a Webster firefighter, who located and then, her brother, who was on the bed," the affidavit stated.

A Boscawen police lieutenant carried Corliss to an ambulance, but she was accused of being combative with him, too. Corliss hit the lieutenant in the face with her bloody hand and said he was now infected, the report said. The lieutenant accused Corliss of screaming about her body being "poisoned" and "you'll die if you eat me," as well as blaming her father for selling her into slavery, calling herself by other names, and admitting to trying to kill herself.

"At no time during the incident did Corliss tell anyone that the children were inside the room," the investigator stated.

The investigator said EMTs spoke with the girl while she was being taken to Concord Hospital. The girl told the EMT that her mom told her that "bad guys broke in" and "my mom set the fire to protect us," according to the affidavit. At Concord Hospital, a doctor also heard a similar statement from the girl.

After petitioning for a criminal search warrant, the investigator searched the home and found the greatest damage was in the floor area of the doorway of the bedroom.

"Fire had caused a mass loss of the wood floorboards resulting in a hole burned into the floor," the investigator wrote. "It was apparent that the fire originated in that doorway area and that heat had filled the upper levels of the space — causing melting and a large amount of smoke."

The fire trapped them in the room, the affidavit stated.

Both windows were also broken, and Corliss had lacerations on her arms. There were also bloodstains on the inside and outside of the windows.

The investigator also found a black barbecue-style lighter on the ground, identified as a Crocs click and flame lighter. It was not damaged by fire, the report said. As the investigator was removing debris from the doorway area, he found a cardboard package for a lighter that was the same brand as the one found outside.

Investigators, however, were unable to find "any competent source of heat for ignition" in the area of the doorway. There were candles in the room and cigarette butts, but they were not near the door and could not have caused the fire, they concluded.

An accelerant detection K-9 unit was brought in to search the home but did not detect any flammable liquids. A can of Goof Off solvent, which is ignitable, was found in the room and may have been involved with the fire, in some way, investigators surmised. In the report, investigators found plenty of materials that could have accelerated the fire — including paper, cardboard, clothing, and household items, too. A number of candleholders were found, and an intact jar candle near a storage room in the hallway was not damaged by fire. There was melted wax found on the floor near the windows, and wax was found on Corliss' clothing, too, the report said.

There was no evidence of a forced entry.

The investigator said there was evidence on the helmet cam that led him to believe "Corliss had likely tried to barricade the upstairs," including a bed headboard that was leaning across the top of the stairs and a snowboard leaning up against the front door.

During interviews, a number of family members all said Corliss had spoken about conspiracy theories, and QAnon — including sex trafficking fears with children and "celebrities and politicians had been replaced with imposters." She also feared coronavirus and spoke about taking hydroxychloroquine and turpentine to fend off the virus.

A digital extraction of her cellphone found references to a number of "conspiracy theories, QAnon, the (2020) election, and videos of butchered human corpses," the report stated.

In mid-March, during an interview at the Merrimack County Child Advocacy Center, the girl was too traumatized to speak about the incident. But other family members stated she had told them a similar accusation about Corliss while adding that she did not want to talk about how her mother set the fire, the report said. The boy was also interviewed a few days later. He mentioned that a candle started the fire but could not describe how, the report stated.

"He referred to a fire outside as being good and a fire inside the house being bad," the affidavit said. "He described the location of the fire as being by or near his bed. His bed was about six feet or so from the doorway to the bedroom."

In late March, the investigator spoke with a doctor at Mass. General Hospital and shared footage of the helmet cam with him. The doctor, the affidavit reported, claimed Corliss said the fire was started when a dog knocked over a candle. She tried to smother the fire with a blanket, the blanket caught on fire, and she panicked, the affidavit stated.

On April 2, Corliss was transferred to Concord Hospital. On April 5, and April 9, the investigator requested to speak to Corliss. A social worker reported that she had nodded her head, "Yes," and wrote, "It was an accident," the report said.

The investigator, in the affidavit, dissected Corliss' claims about the fire and said her version of events and the facts "do not support it" — starting from the dogs, who were downstairs, to there being no candle or accelerant near the doorway, and there was no blanket near the door either, the report said.

"Corliss' claim about the fire starting by an accident does not explain why she did not call for help or attempted to get her and the children safely out of the building," the report stated. "It appears that she broke the windows open but then did not try to get out … the open windows provided ventilation which would have allowed the fire to grow as well as allow for exhaust of smoke."

The investigator said, if a candle was involved in the incident, "it is more reasonable to believe that Corliss lit the candle and then used it and/or the lighter to ignite something other than the candle in the doorway area."

A day before the affidavit was filed, Corliss agreed to an interview and stated a dog had knocked over a burning candle as well as papers on her dresser, the report stated. She claimed to have screamed for help from the broken windows and did tell firefighters that her children were hiding under a bed, the report said. Corliss was accused of admitting to drinking turpentine, and when asked if she thought that poisoning herself had caused her to believe things that were not real, "she admitted that this was possible — but still claimed she did not remember setting the fire."

On April 15, the affidavit was filed against Corliss, 38, on arson and two counts of reckless conduct-domestic violence-deadly weapon, all felonies, as well as two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. She was arrested later by Webster police. Corliss was in court for a disposition hearing on April 28. A bail hearing was held on May 11, and she was released on personal recognizance. Corliss is due back in superior court on July 23 for a dispositional conference.

A free, 24/7 confidential service is available that can provide people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress, or those around them, with support, information, and local resources. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

Editor's note: This post was derived from information supplied by the Merrimack County Superior Court and does not indicate a conviction. This link explains the removal request process for New Hampshire Patch police reports.

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