Manchester Woman Says 'Religious Entity' Told Her To Set Duplex Fire: Prosecutor

A Manchester woman is being held in the Ocean County Jail on a charge of aggravated arson, accused of setting fire to her duplex home and then sitting on a bench and watching it burn, the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office said Wednesday.

Debra Stinson, 62, of Lilac Lane, was arrested May 13 in the hours after a fire left her townhouse and a neighboring unit uninhabitable, Manchester Police Capt. Todd Malland said.

The fire at 501A Lilac Lane was reported at 3:06 p.m. on May 13, Malland said. Manchester Township Police officers who responded reported that one of the units of the attached duplex was fully involved and that flames were coming out of the left side of the residence.

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They confirmed the unit was unoccupied but evacuated the adjoining unit, which was threatened by the fire, Malland said. No one was seriously injured but Malland said at the time that both Stinson and the homeowner in the adjacent unit were treated at the scene as a precautionary measure.

Al Della Fave, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, said the criminal complaint filed against Stinson says she told police at the scene that she had set the fire intentionally because a religious entity told her to do it.

“She set fire to a pair of pants and rubbish in a large plastic flower pot in the middle of the living room,” Della Fave said the complaint says. And then Stinson walked across the street and sat on a bench and watched it burn, according to the complaint, he said.

The fire left both Stinson’s unit and the one next to it uninhabitable and the residents of the neighboring unit were forced to relocate as a result.

Stinson was arrested that day and has been held in the Ocean County Jail, Toms River, in lieu of $50,000 bail, since that day.

The Ocean County Fire Marshal’s Office, the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, and Manchester Detective Adam Emmons investigated.