Transcript of The Fire

Hey, guys. I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Postrun High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. Listen to Postrun High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Join iHeartMedia chairman and CEO, Bob Pitman, for a special episode of The Hit podcast, Math & Magic: Stories from the Frontiers of marketing as he interviews the iconic and prolific Martha Stewart in front of a live audience in celebration of her 100th book.

Did you ever think you were going to wind up writing 100 books? Yeah. You did?

Yeah, it's just a minor goal. Listen to Math & Magic on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sometimes where a crime took place leads you to answer why the crime happened in the first place. Hi, I'm Sloan Glass, host of the new True Crime podcast, American Homicide. In this series, we'll examine some of the country's most infamous and mysterious murders, and learn how the location of the crime becomes a character in the story. Story. Listen to American Homicide on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The morning of December sixth, 2020, was a day Jared will never forget because it was the day of the fire.

Christie, my wife, ended up waking me up. I remember seeing smoke hovering above the bed. It was like a hazy, almost a fog-looking smoke. It was see-through gray. I don't know why I remember that divid detail. I tell her, Go get the dog, get Ada, take her outside. Make sure you're safe away from the house. I'm going to grab a few things, see if it's a small fire.

But it wasn't a small fire.

I opened that spare bedroom door that was shut. There was a huge cloud of black smoke that just engulfed me. As soon as I opened that door, it took the breath right out of me. And I haven't been exposed to a heavy fire before. So I'm thinking, okay, I'll be fine to see if I can walk in here and spray a bucket of water. I'm thinking to myself, okay, I can walk in here, throw this on her nose. As soon as that smoke hit me, it was like there was nothing left in my lungs. I wanted to collapse. Looking back, it was probably a terrible idea to even open that door, but it's still my home. I knew what was going to happen then. All that fresh air in a cold morning. All that oxygen-rich air is going to get in there. And after that, the flames took off.

Jared realized he was not going to be able to extinguish this fire on his own. He had to call 911. He went outside to join Christie and their dog, Ada. But Christie was gone.

When I shut the door to try to contain it, I run outside. When I go outside, her car is gone. I'm like, Where did she go? I didn't see the car. I saw the car going up the driveway. I could hear it, but then it was gone.

911 response. What's your emergency? Jared called 911 and reported that his house was on fire. He would eventually see Christie and Ada again at the house as the firetrucks began to arrive. But where was Christie when he came out of the house? He says that even though his driveway was 5 to 600 feet long, if she was parked at the top of the driveway waiting for him as he asked her to do, he would have seen their car. Why would you leave in the middle of a fire? I'm Trisha LaFatch. I'm a writer, director, actor, and federal criminal defense attorney. I'm going to tell you a story that's all too real about love, lies, and the lengths people will go to for attention. It's a story that will leave you questioning everything you thought you knew about truth, about reality, and about what happens when the two collide in the most unimaginable way. From audio up in Jussoui Press Productions, this is The Unborn. Jared's house is located in a rural area. He's surrounded by farms and forests. It's also located out past the final fire hydrant that is closest to town.

The big thing that's running through my head is, when is the fire department going to get here? It takes them, it would seem like an eternity. They got to my house in 6 minutes. Ends up there were four... Actually, there were five fire stations that actually came to the house because there was no... We don't have fire hydrants or anything like that. You have to go and haul water in to spray these. So there's A spring set up for collecting water for fire trucks and things like that on probably a mile and a half away. I think I want to say there was 20 trucks of water had to come through.

We spoke with the fire chief, Carl, along with Tyler, one of the firefighters from his house. Their department was first to arrive on the scene, and they both participated in putting out the fire. Coincidentally, Jared knew Tyler as a classmate. He was a couple of years ahead of Tyler in school. This is Tyler.

The first ones on scene, and I'm pretty sure the whole house was engulfed already. Everybody was out of house, so we just started pulling lines and working on.

I asked the chief about the level of difficulty involved in having to bring in water. I was impressed. Carl shrug it off like it was no big deal.

No, it's what we did for years before we had hydros. We were one of the first fire companies to do tanker shuttles here in this area. Then it caught on and around surrounding community, so we're all equipped to do the same thing. Once we pass that last hydrant, we go way back to the old-fashioned way, take ourselves, and we have additional dry hydrants in the area.

Jared said that the first trucks arrived on the scene within six minutes of him placing the call. Since Carl and Tyler were there first, I wanted to know their opinion of the level of engulfment that the house was in when they arrived.

I'd say it's about 75% involved when we came down.

75% involved. I honestly don't know a lot about fires, but 75 % involved seems like a lot to me. And the chief felt the same way.

It just seemed unusual in that amount of time, the short response time, that it would be that far gone. Either it wasn't reported in its early stages, nobody saw it, or, of course, I wouldn't have thought it at the time that there could have been an accelerant involved to make it progress that far. There's lots of things that goes in the fire that makes it either progress further or not.

It was surprising he brought this up, especially because I didn't mention it. So I asked him what some natural accelerants would be.

Open doors from the basic. Mostly just wind, air. Somebody opens a door. It could be open doors throughout off. The doors between room to room are shut. It slows the fire down to progressing from room to room.

Jared did open doors, so we know for a fact that there were natural accelerants involved. But what about manmade accelerants?

You could use paper. You don't have to use an accelerant. You could just stack up a bunch of garbage in clothes and waste paper and just like that. If you can get that sofa, see, that's a good one there, too. You can get that sofa burn. Then things go up like an accelerant. That yellow foam that's in it. It burns fast and quick and very poisonous. So there was a... And they get hot, too. Because I remember that all the guns in his safe was going off the whole time, remember? Yeah. All the shells in his safe was going off. It's hard to tell her what she did.

In the end, there was nothing left of Jared's childhood home.

Ruins. Absolutely nothing. There was nothing left of it. There's nothing salvageable from it. My childhood home that I grew up in, I bought off my parents was up in the flames, literally. It's gone.

When Jared first left his house after being unable to put out the fire himself, he did not see Christie or their dog, Ada. But in the chaos of the moment, Jared does recall Christie returning. The next time he saw her, she was being examined by the EMTs. I asked him if he ever asked the EMT specifically, Are the babies okay? Or if he remembers hearing anyone talk about the babies with the medical professionals at all.

Is everything all right? They were like, Yep, everything looks fine. I never crossed my mind to say, Hey, she's pregnant. Did you check on them? I asked, Is everything all right? Looking back, maybe I should have been a little more detail-oriented.

This is yet another time that Jared is looking back, wondering if he should have asked more questions. But hindsight is 2020. I'm not blaming him. None of this is his fault. Just noting a recurring theme that maybe he was too trusting. And while Jared doesn't remember hearing anyone else ask about the babies, we did speak to a neighbor, Darcy, who was present at the scene. I tried to get her out of the truck with her grandma, and she was like, No, no. Apparently, a lot of friends and neighbors gathered while the firefighters tried to put out the fire. And Darcy clearly remembers that after Christie was seen by the EMTs, She was sitting in her grandmother's car when someone mentioned to them that she was pregnant. They offered to check her again, but Christie refused. She wouldn't go over there because they wanted to... Well, they were going to try to do a heartbeat on the babies. Jared sent Christie home with his mom. He chose to stay until the fire finally went out. Family and friends stuck around to support.

No, I made her go home with my mom. They went over to the house. I had somebody sit there with me, and I sat there and watched the burn rest it away.

Even though it was ruined, Jared had a hard time walking away from the smoldering home. He spent every penny he had fixing it up. His memories, past and future, disappearing before his I did.

It was a lot of time, a lot of energy, a lot of thought into it. I mean, it looked almost exactly what I wanted it to look like. I only had a few more finishing touches, and four hours later, it's gone.

Admittedly, Jared and I had only spoken one time before we sat down together, during that initial phone call right after all this happened. So I'm learning a lot of the details that I didn't know about before. Jared had been working on the house for almost a year, and he had just put the finishing touches on the house that day. While Christie had her scheduled C-section the following day. How could these two things be a coincidence? Sure, I guess it's possible. But is it likely?

This is probably the worst part is me reliving this part. You can't bring that back. I can't bring back the scratches I remember putting in the floor because I screwed up where I was hit with a hammer. I won't ever be able to remember those things and show my kids that one day. It's gone forever. I've had some nightmares about it. For probably a week, I didn't sleep. I was afraid that the house was going to catch on fire. I kept reliving that taste and that smell. I really can't emphasize how terrible it was to keep reliving and smelling that and tasting that and seeing all my friends and family stand there.

I've never been near a house fire, so I can only imagine the sensory trauma that comes with it.

The smell was... I'll never forget that either. It was a... I don't want to call it a sulfur, but it was a pungent, almost like you burnt sap. I don't know, I guess. Maybe I'm speaking out of term. Maybe people don't know what that smells like. But if you get an evergreen tree, you ever been up in the woods or anything like that, and someone has a campfire, sometimes they'll throw some pie needles on there. When that sap's burning and it actually burns the sap before, it sticks in your nose.

It was one of many painful memories that Jared would have to carry, and others were on their way. Jared and Christie were young, newlyweds, pregnant with twins, living in a small town when their home burned to the ground. It was a life-changing watching tragedy for them and for those closest to them. But even in this tragedy, there was a silver lining. The immediate response to their situation is an example of the best parts of this community, of small town life. Within 24 hours of the fire, GoFundMe accounts are set up by both Darcy and Molly, and the links to those accounts are being shared via social media. Jared and Christie are also receiving Venmo payments from people who wanted to help. And it wasn't just money. Within 48 hours of the fire, six truckloads of donations arrive at the Akron family farm. There were items for the babies, items for Jared and Christie, even furniture for their future home. Here's Jared's friends talking about the community response. Oh, it was amazing. Everybody was... He got thousands of dollars via GoFundMe, Venmo. I mean, people were wanting to help in any way that they could.

They had they had setups for like, diaper drops and white drops and clothes and donations and all kinds of stuff.

Yeah, the community really was amazing, really backed them. Molly thought so, too. It was amazing. Yeah. Like, just crazy how many people actually reached out and not only gave money, but like, possessions of theirs. Honestly, he'd be lucky to be a part of this community.

Yeah, it was an outpouring. I mean, it was unbelievable. I mean, I don't know an exact number, but me, just me and my partner alone gave him $10,000. It was really neat to see the community come together.

For Jared, he was beside himself with the support.

There's only one word that describes that, and it's overwhelming love, charity. I never realized how many people in the community knew, cared, didn't know me or Christie, and we're like, Hey, we want to help you. I hope one day that I can have that impact on someone else. It's made me open my eyes to caring about what happens to people I don't know. Someone I went to high school with set up a GoFundMe. I didn't even know about it for a couple of days. I look and there's a bunch of money in there, and I didn't know it.

Hey, guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Postrun High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. You know that rush of endorphins you feel after a great workout? Well, that's when the real magic happens. So if you love hearing real, inspiring stories from the people you know, follow, and admire, join me every week for Postrun High. It's where we take the conversation beyond the run and get into the heart of it all. It's light-hearted, pretty crazy, and very fun. Listen to Postrun High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Jenny Garth, Janna Kramer, Amy Robok, and T. J. Holmes bring you I Do Part Two, a one-of-a-kind experiment in podcasting to help you find love again. If you didn't get it right the first time, it's to try, try again as they guide you through this podcast experiment in dating.

Hey, I'm Janna Kramer.

As they say, those that cannot do, teach. Actually, I think I finally got it right. So take the failures I've had the second or even third or whatever, maybe the fourth time around.

I'm Jenny Garth. 29 years ago, Kelly Taylor said these words, I choose me. She made her choice. She chose herself. When it comes to love, choose you first. Hi, everyone. I'm Amy Roby. And I'm TJ Holmes, and we are, well, not necessarily relationship experts. If you're ready to dive back into the dating pool and find lasting love, finally, we want to help.

Listen to Ido Part 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Hi, listeners. I'm Sloan Glass, the host of American Homicide, a podcast where we take you across the country to investigate some of America's deadliest crimes. We'll explore how these murders are shaped by their unique landscapes, and in turn, how these tragedies have shaped the fabric of these American communities forever. And you can get access to all episodes of American Homicide 100% ad-free and one week early through the iHeartTrueCrise+ subscription available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. So don't wait. Head to Apple Podcasts, search for iHeartTrueCrine+ and subscribe today.

I think there was six grand in there, and then there was some Venmos. I couldn't even keep track of it. It was astronomical. There was every bit of $40, $50,000 that were donated, including baby stuff. It's like you went and robbed a target or something of all their baby stuff. I'm still going through it and trying to give it to people in need.

And while Jared was overwhelmed by all the donations, both monetary and material, when I asked him if there was a particular donation that humbled him the most, his answer was surprising. It wasn't the $10,000 that his boss, Henry, and his partner gave. It was people's time.

Two days after the fire, I had 15 guys at the house helping me tear it down because I was trying to buy another house, one of the manufactured home. It was in stock. I had to get down to the foundation to measure it, have a guy come out, check, and had to make sure that joint was still good in them. I mean, having 15 guys there all day long, order pizza. We worked all night long because they knew they didn't have anywhere yet. I mean, it is supposed to have a kid the next day.

Christie was due to give birth the very next day to the twins that she was not carrying. And the night before she is supposed to give birth, Jared and Christie's house burns to the ground. The day after the fire, Jared took Christie to the hospital to find out if the scheduled C-section would happen or if the plan was going to change due to the fire. Christie told Jared that her doctor decided to push the date of the delivery by a week.

December seventh, I took her to a doctor's appointment. We're ready to drop her off, sit on the side street, make the phone calls to the insurance companies. They were worried about the stress from the fire and the smoke that was in her lungs. They were worried about putting her under, which I found out after. They don't actually get put under for a C-section. Maybe that's my fault. I didn't look at that further in-depth.

The clock was ticking on Christie's lie. But the fire and this follow-up appointment with Jared, again, not allowed in, has bought her another week to figure out exactly what it is going to do next. But for Jared, especially looking back, clouding that week of waiting was Christie's demeanor and actions.

She was so excited to go through all these clothes that people were giving. But now that I look back on it, she was throwing out these clothes that were, I think it's three to six months. She was so focused on these clothes and looking at her like things were given her. Oh, look at these shoes or look at this necklace. I'm like, me, personally, I'm Okay, we need a crib. We need car seats. We need these things. That's what I'm worried about, where she was more mute to the community, where I was in front of them. Hey, thank you very much. She was in the house.

And then the inevitable happened. Just a week later, when the news began to spread that Christie was never pregnant, the community that was so quick to come together to help a young couple in need turned on Jared completely.

And then all the shit hit the fan and all the wheels fell off and everybody wanted their money back, and it turned into a little bit of a shit show.

I mean, people just drug him through the mud, said nasty things about his character, said he was after money, all these different things.

And I just...

I was like, You do not know Jared the way that I know Jared. He would not do that. He had genuinely no clue that these things were going to happen.

I would say it was 50/50 that people treated him like he just had a fire and bad shit happened to him.

I mean, it was all over social media. There were GoFundMe set up because like I said, he had twins on the way. She was due, I don't know how close to it, but it was very close. And all of us, we were sharing to go fund me. We were donating. And I felt bad afterwards because he got a lot of heat. I took advantage of a small community when he genuinely had no clue.

People that really didn't know the whole story was there were some assholes that we want our money back. You try to rip us off and that crap. Actually, it was a couple of people that I knew. I called them and I told them what happened. And then they was like, Well, we just don't want her having the money. So after they... I told them, I said, The guy's house still burnt down. It wasn't like he was trying to rip anybody off.

I mean, this house did burn down. Jared has lived in this community for his entire life, and up until now, he had a stellar reputation: hardworking, trusting, kind. That reputation was flipped upside down through no fault of his own.

Oh, they were pissed. I mean, it was like the world was in it. They gave their hard earned money these donations. They went and bought things that they thought we would need. And when you find out we were taken advantage of or what was presented from all the rumors that had started, it was Hey, they stole our money.

The first rumor was that Jared was involved in the attempted baby napping at the hospital. To be fair, his photograph was up at all of the local hospitals as a person to be on the look out for as an infant security risk. So potentially the Bolo and gossip around the Bolo informed that rumor.

The first rumor was that I was involved. I knew all about the fake pregnancy. I went along with it, and it was all over Facebook. And Molly had sent them to me. So I start looking into what's reading, and I get a call from one of the friends that Molly had set up this Venmo through. They were neighbors there. And they're getting emails and requests, I think, on Venmo. Hey, I want my donation back. So I'm like, Seriously, give it back. I don't want something that they think that I'm involved in. I don't want this if they want it back. I'm not here to make money. My house burned down. I don't care right now. I got nothing. My whole life just turned upside down in the week. House burnt down. I'm not with my wife anymore, and I don't have any children.

Jared was willing to do everything he could do to clear his name and make things right with the people who donated.

So at this point, I'm furious But at the same time, I want these people to have their money back, their donations. I don't want to keep these things. It was such a tough thing to take in that the community thought that I was a part of this.

But all All of Jared's efforts to give the money back had to be put on hold when he got a call from the fire marshal.

Two days later, I got a call from the fire marshal. He goes, Hey, I hate to be the bear in bad news, but we've had multiple people come in here and say that We think your wife Christie set the house on fire. We want to ask you some questions. Rumors started. They were like, Okay, maybe he's not involved. Maybe she set the house on fire.

The fire marshal had questions for Jared. Heck, we all had questions.

I've gone back and forth. My opinion is I think she probably did, but I'm only questioning how she got away with it because you can't just search on the internet how to start an inclusive fire.

But then I kept thinking, and maybe her plan was for both of them to die in the fire, so the babies would have just died, and then it just would have been a tragedy. But at the same time, if I was lighting my house on fire, I think I would take something. I don't think I could let it all burn. Would you keep four pairs of cowboy boots in your SUV? I wouldn't either, unless I was going to torch in my house and didn't want them to burn. I think to start the fire was her escape.

Oh, she had been suspected in Washington County here of two other fires. I think she's saying to the point where if that happened, if she did light that fire, something clicked and she goes, I got to wake him up or otherwise I'm going to go to jail for a long, fine time.

This is it. We're done. I'm just going to end it, right? Which is even harder to think about, if she would have actually went through with that.

She worked at a local farm in one of the barns burnt down, and the fire investigator, they had her as one of the suspects, but they could never prove it.

I think she was planning on just ending it for the both of them, just trying to be done with life, literally.

I don't want to say crazy, but you have to be pretty mentally unstable for someone to just do that and burn everything that they own and love and possibly die in the process.

But I think once it got to an escalated point, she would freak out and fight or flight type thing. But I do think she started with a fire and was trying to end it. So many people from the community have their opinions on the fire. It's overwhelmingly one-sided. But what about Jared? Does he think Christie was capable of doing this? I asked Jared if he thought Christie started the fire because we don't know. I asked him to present a case for both sides, reasons he thinks she did do it and reasons he could come up with as to why she did not.

I guess the first thing that comes to my mind is that she was due the next day. Maybe there was some... Her plan wasn't thought out. She didn't think it would go this far, and she needed some time or an excuse to move the due date so she could have some more time to plan or something like that. And a lot of it comes down to that night. It was weird. She did wake me up off the couch, the bedtime routine. I would usually fall asleep on the couch. The reason being is she was pregnant. She had a tough time sleeping. I'm a heavy sleeper. I snore. I set my alarm. They're always set.

This had been their routine for months. Jared sleeping on the couch and Christie in their bedroom.

I would get up in the morning, and I was gone before she even woke up. Okay. It was just easier. I didn't wake her up, rolling out of bed, fumbling around in the dark. But she made it a point to wake me up.

Hey, guys. I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Postrun High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. Together. You know that rush of endorphins you feel after a great workout? Well, that's when the real magic happens. So if you love hearing real, inspiring stories from the people you know, follow, and admire, join me every week for Postrun High. It's where we take the conversation beyond the run and get into the heart of it all. It's light-hearted, pretty crazy, and very fun. Listen to Postrun High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Jenny Garth, Janna Kramer, Amy Robok, and T. J. Holmes bring you I Do Part Two, a one-of-a-kind experiment in podcasting to help you find love again. If you didn't get it right the first time, it's time to try, try again as they guide you through this podcast, Experiment in Dating.

Hey, I'm Janna Kramer.

As they say, those that cannot do, teach. Actually, I think I finally got it right. So take the failures I've had the second or even third or whatever, maybe the fourth time around.

I'm Jenny Garth. 29 years ago, Kelly Taylor said these words, I choose me. She made her choice. She chose herself. When it comes to love, choose you first. Hi, everyone. I'm Amy Roby. And I'm TJ Holmes. And we are, well, not necessarily relationship experts. If you're ready to dive back into the dating pool and find lasting love, finally, we want to help.

Listen to Ido Part 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Hey there, my little creeps. It's your favorite ghost host, Theresa. And guess what? Haunting is back, dropping just in time for a spooky season. Now, I know you've probably been wondering the mortal plane Wondering when I'd be back to fill your ears with deliciously unsettling stories? Well, wonder no more, because we've got a ghoulishly good lineup ready for you. Let's just say things get a bit extra. We're talking spirits, demons, and the supernatural chaos that will make your spooky season complete. You know how much I love this time of year. It's the one time I'm actually on trend. So grab your pumpkin spice, dust off that Ouija board. Just don't call me unless it's urgent. And tune in for new episodes every week. Remember, the veils are thin, the stories are spooky, and your favorite ghost host is back and batter than ever. Listen to Haunting on the My Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Up that night. Jared. Which she never does to come into bed. Now, the couch versus where the fire had started was maybe only 6 foot apart.

The night of the fire, she tells him to get off the couch and come to bed. He obliges her request.

It's right there. I mean, 6 feet from that door. Whereas when I'm in a bedroom, there's a closed door. I can't hear what's going on. It was just funky.

The spare room where the fire originated is only 6 feet away from the couch on which he's been sleeping. And it's in a living room, an open space in the house. Their bedroom is in the back. It's the room that is the furthest distance from the spare room and the couch. Jared is now in that room with the door shut.

So maybe she wanted to put me in a bedroom, shut the door, and I guess get me away from that door so she could do something in there.

There are three very large coincidences on that evening. One, Jared had just finished the remodel on the house. Two, Christie was due the next day, and she asked him to move to the bedroom, which she never usually does. But there's one more thing, and anyone who's ever owned an animal let alone slept with their animal every night, like Jared did with Ada, will understand that this is a pretty noticeable point. That even though Jared told Christie, grab the dog and go outside when she woke him, Jared doesn't remember ever hearing his dog, Ada, bark on that evening.

But then I also don't remember ever hearing the dog bark, which that throws me for a curveball. When you're When an animal smells smoke, any of them, they're not going to stick around. They're going to bark, make noises, try to get out of the house. I don't remember ever hearing ate a bark, ever clawing at the door, jumping on top of me, or anything like that.

Where was Ada? I can't imagine a scenario where she would have been in the house and not alerted Jared and Christie to the fire. Jared said that when Christie woke him up, his room was already filled with a gray, smoky haze. So would Christie have woken up in the same bed as her husband and realized there was a fire, taken Ada outside and then come back in to wake him up? Is that scenario likely at all? And if she did take Ada outside, which accounts for Jared never hearing her bark, when did she take her out? And why? There's another side to this coin, because at the end of the day, we just don't know. I asked Jared if he could come up with reasons why he thinks Christie did not start the fire.

She lost everything in the house that she had. There was a complete loss. Nothing was saved.

That's a great point, and one that Molly mentioned. But that assumes if Christie started the fire, which I'm not saying she did, that she started the fire in her right mind. Is that what a rational person in their best mind would think? Was there anything else?

The insurance guy come out, they check for accelerants, all this stuff, and nothing was ever proven. It was as an electrical fire, which there was some old wiring in there that was jerry-rigged, which it very well could have been the cause of it. And that's what it was determined was it was an electrical fire that burned the house down.

The fire chief had his own theories. Based on your experience and expertise, do you believe that the source of the fire was faulty electronegativity?

I'm going to say no. It was burnt in such a way so far that the investigators really couldn't get in to make a real good determination. Due to some of the circumstances surrounding that fire, then you really have to question.

Jared never knew of his wife's suspected arson activity until he was approached by the fire marshal.

I don't know if it was the fact that there's been multiple fires that she's been involved in before. Not involved, but she was around them. If there was a couple of things that were caught on fire and nothing was ever proven, it It really makes you think like, Hey, do I really know who I'm married to?

Jared's father, David, was convinced that there were no babies.

By this time, I'm convinced there's no babies, but I can't be 100% sure or anything like that. But in my mind, I'm like, I don't think there was any. My wife calls and says her mother and stepdad want to talk about it. Well, I had just about enough talk. By then, I've got a lot of doubts in my mind. So they're sitting there and finally said that she's We've done this before. And I said, What? Nobody said anything. And I'm sure more people knew, but they never mentioned anything, never pulled us aside before the wedding, any of that stuff.

David is upset here, reliving the memory, and rightfully so. But I asked him about what he meant when he said Sheila and her husband told them that Christie's done this before. On a different occasion, with a previous boyfriend, Christie told her mom she was pregnant. But for whatever reason, Sheila didn't believe her, and she hired a private investigator to follow Christie to see if she would learn the truth. The private investigator followed Christie to the hospital and watched Christie as she parked in the hospital parking lot. Christie called her mother from the parking lot and told her she was in the ER having a DNC because she had just miscarried that child. The private investigator told Sheila that Christie, while technically at the hospital, never got out of her car. Here's Sarah. And that was another thing why I questioned was because a previous relationship, she said she was pregnant, and either he proposed or said he didn't want to get married until the baby was here, and then she said she had a miscarriage. Yet another reason why Sarah was suspicious of Christie and Jared's pregnancy. That Christie herself, not Sheila, who Sarah doesn't even know, told her somewhat in passing that she was engaged and pregnant before, and they were going to marry, but they didn't because she lost that child.

I don't know the specifics of what made Christie tell Sarah that information. Jog it up to female bonding. Oh, you're pregnant. I've been pregnant, too. I can only guess that she wasn't trying to plant a seed of suspicion in Sarah, which is what happened. Nor did she ever anticipate that Sheila would have caused to have the conversation she had with Jared's father. Jared learned on Saturday afternoon that Christie was never pregnant, and he decides that he has no option but to keep his knowledge a secret for two reasons. First, he was very concerned about the money from the donations that they had put in the bank. It was his intention to get that money out of the bank and return it back to anyone who was upset about their donation once they discovered the truth about Christie's pregnancy. Second, he wanted out of his marriage to Christie, and he needed to find a lawyer who practiced family law. This is where Melissa will enter the picture. But it's the weekend, and he can't do either one of those things. That Saturday night and the following Sunday were going to be the longest 36 hours of Jared's entire life.

I knew I had to make it through the weekend with her finding out that I knew everything was a lie. I mean, it was a little tough. It was almost un surreal. I mean, the feelings of, Hey, I know I have to be a better actor and liar than she was to make sure I could end up making it to the lawyers and to the bank in time.

Not only was Jared going to have to keep this lie up until Monday, he was going to have to hide some fear because when he was cleaning up the debris from the fire, he noticed that something was missing.

At this point, I'm feeling a little uneasy, and the reason being is I'm still missing a fire arm. I'm thinking back into, I open my safe, I count on my firearms, and I realize one's missing. After the fire, when all the smoldering goes down, I go and count my firearms because I have to call the state police and say, Hey, here's the serial numbers of the registered guns that I have that are lost. It was just a black and mess. There was no wood, no stocks, nothing like that. It was gun barrels just melted. There was one pistol missing. It has no safety. It has 13 shells in it. If you pulled a trigger, it's going off. In the back of my mind, I'm thinking, Hey, is there a possibility that she has it and my life could be in danger?

Next time on The Unborn.

I say, yes, I think my account has been jeopardized. Come up to my office, we need to go over to the courthouse.

I'm going to try to resolve this for him with the least amount of pain possible.

Then I guess that's where our friendship began. There were sometimes where I was like, What is happening? This bitch is crazy. Because that gun is still missing.

That's next time on The Unborn. The Unborn is a production of iHeartPodcasts, Audio Up, and Jessuit Press productions. Created by Trisha LaFatch and Frank Rodriguez Mall. Produced by Alvin Cohen and Rachel Foley. Executive produced by Jimmy Jelenic, David Thwaites, and Jared Gustat. Edited by Gerard Bauer and Preston Dawson. Sound design and mixing by Jeremiah Zimmerman.

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Did you ever think you were going to wind up writing 100 books? Yeah. You did?

Yeah, it's just a minor goal. Listen to Math & Magic on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Sometimes where a crime took place leads you to answer why the crime happened in the first place. Hi, I'm Sloan Glass, host of the new True Crime podcast, American Homicide. In this series, we'll examine some of the country's most infamous and mysterious murders, and learn how the location of the crime becomes a character in the story. Listen to American Homicide on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.