South Hill mom accused of starting fire at family home pleads not guilty

April 25--The public felt so sorry for Melinda Sayers that they flooded her with prayers, kind words and more than $32,000 in donations.

Sayers' baby girl was fighting for her life in the hospital, the South Hill home she and her family rented burned in a fire days before they were to bring their daughter home and they were struggling with financial problems.

It was all too much.

What the public didn't know, according to authorities, is that Sayers lost her nursing license for falsifying paperwork and started the fire at her home because she felt too stressed to care for the little girl.

Pierce County sheriff's detectives arrested Sayers, 37, on Thursday after she allegedly admitted to starting the April 1 blaze by lighting a candle and opening an oxygen tank.

The oxygen tank was among the medical supplies recently set up in the family's home to care for their 11-month-old daughter, Abigail, when she was released from the hospital. Abigail, who was born prematurely and had brain damage, died the day after the fire.

Sayers appeared in court Friday in a suicide smock and pleaded not guilty to first-degree arson and falsifying an insurance claim.

Her defense attorney, Don Winskil, told the court Sayers was under a tremendous amount of stress before the fire and asked that she be released on her own recognizance. Superior Court Commissioner Meagan Foley refused, ordering Sayers jailed in lieu of $200,000 because the arson was an "unacceptable response to stress."

Sayers has received several threats, Winskil said.

Prosecutors said they are also considering charges of theft by deception for the thousands of dollars given to the family after the fire left their home unlivable.

The woman who started the donation site, Wanda O'Dell, said she was horrified to hear of Sayers' arrest and would try to refund money to those who wanted their donations back.

Some, however, asked that Sayers' husband Chris and son Eli, 2, keep the money. Investigators said Chris Sayers played no role in the arson.

"This man lost a child, a wife, all his belongings and is now facing raising a son on his own without anything," Erica Borneman wrote on the donation page. "Keep my money, he still needs it. May peace find him in this mess."

Chris Sayers left home April 1 about 15 minutes before the fire broke out. By the time firefighters arrived at the house in the 2500 block of 107th Avenue Court East, the flames were extinguished and only a cardboard box in the living room was still smoldering.

Firefighters nicknamed Sayers "Superwoman" after she told them she'd dropped her son out of a bedroom window seconds before a loud explosion rocked their house. Neither she nor her son were hurt.

Sayers told her story repeatedly through the media, chronicling how she saved her son and herself. Sayers talked about how tough times were with her husband being out of work and then losing the house where they'd hoped to bring Abigail home.

The Sayers' insurance company gave them $5,000 and provided them with temporary housing, according to charging papers.

Sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer has said investigators became suspicious after Sayers' story about escaping the fire didn't add up and she failed to tell them about losing her nursing license in 2012 for falsifying documents.

Fire investigators noted that Sayers said she walked past the origin of the fire twice and ignored the smoke alarm because it was always going off.

The state Department of Health suspended Sayers' nursing license in 2012 after charging her with unprofessional conduct. Documents indicate she falsified an application for her husband with the Lance Armstrong Foundation Fertile Hope Program and forged prescriptions for herself for fertility and anxiety medications.

Staff writer Adam Lynn contributed to this report.

___

(c)2014 The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.)

Visit The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.) at www.TheNewsTribune.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services