BECKLEY, W.Va. — State Police says a church which was torched in a deliberate act of arson was a storied landmark in Raleigh County.
Trooper D.L. Daniels arrested three people connected to the fire which leveled the historic St. Colman Roman Catholic Church in the Shady Spring area.. Charged are Braxton Allan Miller, 18, of Charleston and 19-year-old James Dean Elmore, of Beckley. The third suspect is a juvenile from Beckley. Trooper Daniels said the incident caused a lot of anger in the community.
“That church has been there since 1877 and it really affected the community and the community wanted answers,” he said.
Daniels said information developed by the community and passed along to him helped lead to the three arrests. More arrests may also be pending. Two other individuals were close by the night of the fire, but Daniels did not believe they were involved.
“There were three people in the church who actually, deliberately set it on fire. The other two were down at the bottom of the hill with zero knowledge of what was going on,” he explained.
It’s unclear if the other two will be charged. According to Daniels, the three set fire to a set of plastic flowers in the church while drinking, then put a church pew over the flames and accelerated the fire with vodka.
“It was a deliberate act,” said Daniels.
Daniels said it’s not unusual for people to visit the church because of its historic lore, but these individuals were different.
“A lot of people go up there because it’s an historical landmark. People come from all over the world to see it because it’s haunted. There’s a book in there that people sign from all over the world. Some do go in there and vandalize it, but this group decided to burn it down,” he said.