A pair of evicted tenants threatened the homeowners they lived with just a week before the arson fire that killed the property owners’ two young children, investigators say.
Police say arson was behind the fire that killed six-year-old Xavier and eight-year-old Rose in Mount Vernon, Washington early Saturday morning, and are holding the two former tenants for investigation.
Kimberly Marie Hughes, 32, and Jaramy L. Chism, 24, are each being held in lieu of $2million bail on suspicion of first degree arson and two counts of first degree murder in the home fire.
‘I will sue you or burn your house down, Hughes told the homeowners on July 8, seven days before the fire, investigators said in court filings on Monday.
Dead: Police say arson was behind the fire that killed eight-year-old Rose (left) and six-year-old Xavier (right) in Mount Vernon, Washington early Saturday morning
Suspects: Kimberly Marie Hughes, 32, and Jaramy L. Chism, 24, are each being held in lieu of $2million bail on suspicion of first degree arson and two counts of first degree murder
Parents Bryan Bachofer and Jessica Starr, who tried to help her children escape but fell out of a second-story window while removing the screen, have been hospitalized with serious injuries from the fire.
Investigators’ suspicions of Hughes and Chism were revealed on Monday, when the pair appeared in court.
Both deny the allegations against them, the Skagit County Public Defender’s Office said.
Hughes was previously convicted of second-degree arson in 2014, police said.
In that incident, investigators said in court documents: ‘She stated she set her ex-boyfriend’s clothes on fire in a laundry basket. She stated she was mad at him for cheating on her. ‘
Held: Kimberly Hughes and Jaramy Chism are seen in a court appearance on Monday
Hughes and Chism lived as renters in the house for an unclear amount of time before the fire
Hughes made reference to a dispute over her lease in several Facebook posts like this one
‘I later learned from the [police] report that there were people in the home when she set this fire,’ the investigator wrote.
After living as renters with Bachofer and Starr for an unclear amount of time, a dispute arose about the terms of a lease renewal, Hughes’ social media posts indicate.
The dispute grew to include disagreements over payments to Chism from Bachofer, who employed the tenant for work on the rural property, the posts indicate.
Bachofer had the man and woman evicted and they moved out on July 11, police said.
Four days later, around 2am on Saturday, another renter in the house, Jacob Motz, awoke to the sounds of crackling fire and the smell of smoke, police said.
Fire crews responded and found the house engulfed in flames when they arrived.
Starr told a neighbor that she’d taken the children to a second story window to try to escape, but fell out of the window while pushing the window screen out.
‘She was head-to-toe, [covered] in black soot,’ Bob Eaton told KTVL.
‘She was cut up really quite badly and burned. She was really in tough shape.’
Bachofer and Motz also escaped from the house.
Cops searching for Hughes and Chism found the pair asleep in a tent in the backyard of a home about 10 miles away from the fire at 6.30am on Saturday.
The pair told police that they had been sleeping there since midnight and denied starting the fire.
Bachofer and Starr are recovering from ‘burns and severe lung damage’, family friend Tamara Carlson wrote on a GoFundMe appeal for the couple.
‘They’ve lost everything and will be facing unimaginable grief, medical recovery, medical bills and the rebuilding of their lives.’