MARION,Indiana
Here’s a bizarre story out of Marion. A woman was arrested by police charged with Criminal Mischief and Arson after she told police that she started a fire in an abandoned building in Marion on Sunday because she was bored. What is even more strange is that the woman, 23-year-old Amanda Meeks-Johnson, whose last known address was on the 5000 block of South Adams Street, was arrested and charged with Arson in December of 2015 after allegedly starting a fire near the Marion Public Library. At that time, she apparently told police she started that fire because she needed a place to stay and wanted to go to jail, that according to Marion Police Department Deputy Chief Stephen Dorsey.
The abandoned building that caught fire on Sunday is located at 714 South Adams Street, and Meeks-Johnson apparently admitted to police that she gathered garbage from neighboring trash dumpsters and lit the fire with a cigarette lighter. Deputy Chief Dorsey told local media that Meeks-Johnson planned on standing across the street to watch the fire burn the building to the ground. The building, which is attached to Busy B’s Auto Cleanup, suffered anywhere from $750 to $50,000 in damage due to the fire, according to police.
Marion Fire Investigator Chad Jenkins added that Meeks-Johnson told responding officers that she started the fire because Marion is so boring and she needed some excitement. Thankfully, the building did not suffer serious damage because the fire was put out so quickly, Jenkins said. He added that about half of arson suspects are repeat offenders.
Meeks-Johnson is currently in the Grant County Jail being held on a $10,000 bond.