North Dakota Woman Charge With Burning Down Krain Township Home

(KNSI) – The Stearns County Sheriff’s Office says a North Dakota woman has been arrested and is suspected of arson.

On Thursday afternoon at 2:11, a deputy, a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources conservation officer, and the Freeport, Holdingford and Upsala Fire Departments responded to a blaze at a home on 248th Avenue in Krain Township. The residence is a total loss.

In a press release, the sheriff’s office says personnel made contact with 40-year-old Jamie Lynn Morin of Wahpeton who admitted at the scene to starting the fire. Bail has been set at $100,000. The incident is still under investigation by the Minnesota State Fire Marshal’s Office.

In the criminal complaint, it states that Morin had been living at the home for about a month. She had just started a relationship with the owner, a 52-year-old man. A neighbor picked her up after he had driven over to the home to check on the welfare of any occupants and saw her walking south on 248th Avenue. He brought Morin back to the scene where he overheard her tell the deputy that she had started the fire.

The complaint says Morin had become upset and took a propane torch to a pile of clothes in the laundry room. A 20-pound propane cylinder was found by investigators with the Fire Marshal’s Office near the bottom of the basement staircase. Also located was a plumber’s torch.

No one was inside the home when the fire was started.

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