Woman arrested and charged with Masardis arson

6 years ago

MASARDIS, Maine — A Linneus woman was charged Thursday for her role in an arson that destroyed a truck in Masardis in 2016.

Melissa Sawyer, 41, was arrested on Thursday, according to Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the State Department of Public Safety. She was charged with arson by Fire Investigator Jeremy Damren and taken to the Aroostook County Jail in Houlton.

The fire destroyed a 2012 Kenworth tractor parked in the yard of John Craig Trucking on the Garfield Road in Masardis on April 11, 2016. Two men, including Craig, 48, and Richard Gilman, 25, were arrested a few months after the fire and charged in the arson.

Fire Investigators said the truck was torched for insurance proceeds and the two men said they were elsewhere with Sawyer at the time of the fire

New information by investigators now contend that Sawyer was at the fire site along with the two men. There was still $90,000 owed on the truck when it was burned.