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2 women accused in elaborate plan to burn down Lake County home for insurance money

Two Lake County women are accused of burning down a home for insurance money.
The mobile home on Swain Road in Orange County, near the Lake County line, went up in flames in October.
But investigators said they spent the past few months unraveling an elaborate arson plan.

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The two sisters, who had lived in the home 15 years, were fighting an eviction from the property and investigators found lots of clues that the fire was intentional.
When the fire broke out, property owner Beverly Halloran ran down Swain Road to see if anyone needed help.  
"I got halfway down the road and it burst into flames. It like, exploded, just engulfed, flames," she said.
The flames and smoke sent horses on the land running for cover, and left Halloran worried about the two sisters who lived in the home.
"I was like, 'OK there (are) two cars gone. They have one truck left in their driveway with the bird cage in it, which I thought was very weird,'” said Halloran.
It's just one of the pieces of an elaborate plan investigators said landed Nancy Hogrefe and Virginia Hogrefe in jail on arson and fraud charges.
It was Halloran, their land owner, who tipped off the fire marshal.
"When they came back the next day, by 1:30, I said, ‘So where were you?’ And she said, ‘Well, we were out of town,’” said Halloran.
According to the arrest affidavit, Virginia Hogrefe told investigators that on the night of the fire, she and her sister went sightseeing in St. Augustine.

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But investigators later determined the sisters orchestrated the trip to provide an alibi.
Inside the burned-down home, arson investigators found a burn pattern from the bedroom to the living room, caused "by an accelerant being poured."
Halloran was in the process of trying to evict the Hogrefes and investigators believe the sisters caused the fire to collect at least $20,000 in insurance money to finance their move.
"That's saddens me because I just wanted the place cleaned up. That's all I wanted,” Hogrefes said.
After the fire was out, investigators noticed there was barely anything in the kitchen cabinets and dresser drawers in the bedrooms.
It's believed the women moved all the things they wanted to keep, including their fine china, to storage before the fire.
The women are out on bond.  

Cox Media Group

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