• Investigators puzzled about fire at 12:30 a.m. Friday that heavily damaged a home along Stanley Circle, the area known for homicides and drug activity just outside Brunswick’s town limits.

By BOB HIGH
Staff Writer

Federal, state and local investigators Friday probed the ruins of a residence blaze along Stanley Circle after arson caused fire and smoke damage to the home of three people not associated with any criminal activity.

“We don’t know why this act was committed. As far as we know, the Garcia family is perfectly innocent of any illegal activity,” Sheriff Chris Batten said.

Roberto Luis Garcia, 53, his wife Joanne, also 53, and their daughter Stacy Marcella Garcia, 24, were asleep in their home at 346 Stanley Circle at 12:30 a.m. Friday when the daughter was awakened by a noise.

Stacy Garcia told investigators she heard glass break in an adjacent bedroom and went to find out what happened. She said the room was engulfed in flames when she opened the door.

The woman ran to her parents’ bedroom, awakened both and all three left the residence immediately.The victims tried to fight the blaze with a garden hose until the quick arrival of the Brunswick Volunteer Fire Department.

Firefighters were able to quickly extinguish the blaze and limited most of the fire damage to the bedroom, but there was heavy smoke damage and limited water damage to the balance of the home. None of the three occupants was injured.

Criminal activity

Stanley Circle, the site of four homicides in three years, and more than three dozen felony arrests involving cocaine, marijuana and prescription medication, is the area where Batten announced a crackdown last week.

The stepped-up enforcement began Friday, March 9, following a murder in a portion of the gravel Stanley Circle road on March 7.

“The residence where the arson took place is not a location where we’ve been called to in our recent history. We don’t understand why the Garcia family was targeted by this act,” the sheriff pointed out.

The Garcia home is across the street from where Clayvon Ternail Collins, 23, of Stanley Circle, was gunned down in October 2005, and less than two blocks from where men were killed in December 2006 and last week.

A woman’s body – her throat slashed -- was found a block from the Garcia home in 2004.

An agent from the federal Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms Division, arson specialists with the State Bureau of Investigation and the sheriff’s detective squad spent much of Friday combing the ruins and talking to the victims and any other person who volunteered information.

Reward possible

“We need more information about this arson. A reward can be paid to anyone giving us good information, and it’ll be paid through the Crimestoppers program,” Detective Capt. David Nobles said.

He noted a call to Crimestoppers did not require the caller to provide their name or any means of identification.

The caller is assigned a number and the reward is paid without proof of ID, Nobles added.

Nobles said the sheriff’s office still needs information about the murder of Purdie James Vereen, 44, in the early morning hours of March 7. Anyone wishing to contact authorities can call the sheriff’s office at 642-6551 or contact Crimestoppers at 1-800/531-9845.

The sheriff noted the arson case was the first incident reported from the Stanley Circle area after his office’s crackdown 10 days ago.