Background: The 300 block of Penn Street in Salisbury, Maryland (Google Maps). Inset: Janice Oney (Office of the Maryland State Fire Marshal).
A woman is accused of intentionally starting a fire at a man”s home in Salisbury, Maryland, because he allegedly owed her $7.
Janice Oney, 51, faces a slew of charges, including first and second-degree arson, malicious burning, reckless endangerment, malicious destruction of property, and theft of less than $100, the last three of which are misdemeanors. She was placed on a $25,000 unsecured personal bond on Monday and posted it, according to Wicomico County court records.
The fire broke out on July 3. A man who lived in the 300 block of Penn Street in the city told authorities that Oney, “someone he had known for several years,” was at his home when she “became upset after demanding $7 she claimed he owed her.”
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They are said to have argued before she left. But she soon “returned minutes later with a bottle of gasoline, setting the front door on fire before fleeing the area on a bicycle.” The fire did not appear to spread far; by the time investigators with the Office of the State Fire Marshal and the Salisbury Fire Department arrived, the occupant had extinguished it, the state agency said.
Investigators still had a case to solve, though, and evidence reportedly pointed to Oney “intentionally” setting the fire. Not only was there the resident’s account of events, but surveillance footage from area businesses “helped link Oney to the incident,” the Office of the State Fire Marshal added.
Oney was arrested on Aug. 1 and placed in the Wicomico County Detention Center. She has a preliminary court hearing scheduled for Aug. 28.
Salisbury is located south of Delaware, near the Atlantic Ocean and about 30 miles west of Ocean City, Maryland.
