The Associated Press
CHICAGO — A woman told investigators that she was trying to warm her feet by lighting a dollar bill on fire when the blaze spread through an apartment building and killed four people, a prosecutor said Tuesday.
A Cook County judge denied bond for Mary Smith, who is charged with murder and aggravated arson after allegedly setting four weekend fires on Chicago’s North Side.
Three men and a young mother died in the fourth fire, which began Saturday morning on a landing between the second and third floors of the building.
One of the witnesses who identified Smith saw her in the vestibule of the building, prosecutor Mary Lacy said. The man, who was visiting one of the victims killed, said he gave Smith a dollar.
Smith told investigators that she used the dollar to start a fire because she had lost her shoes and wanted to warm her feet, Lacy said.
When the fire began to spread, Smith said she left the building and could see smoke pouring from it and hear people calling for help, Lacy said.
Smith will be held at the Cook County Jail’s hospital facility, after Cook County Criminal Judge Colleen Hyland granted that request by Assistant Public Defender Dayna Woodbury.
“All indications are she is seriously mentally ill,” Woodbury said.
Smith was identified after witnesses reported seeing an unkempt woman wearing clear plastic bags on her feet near the scene of the fires. Authorities were not certain of her age.
Lacy identified the male victims Tuesday as Jason Bowers, 24, Jerod Pilgreen, 21, and Joseph Schultz, 24. The Cook County medical examiner’s office confirmed Tuesday that 24-year-old Jennifer Carlson also died in the blaze.
The victims’ relatives filed wrongful death lawsuits Tuesday against the owners and managers of the building. They claim the building owners violated a city ordinance by failing to maintain a deadbolt locking system on its front door, which allowed Smith to enter and set the fire.