A 30-year-old Orangeburg woman is accused of setting fire to a Bible at the site of a home that burned the day before, according to an Orangeburg Department of Public Safety incident report.
Daynesha Russell, of Waring Street, is charged with third-degree arson.
Just before 8 p.m. Thursday, some employees at a nearby business reported seeing a woman start a fire at 724 Whitman Street.
Officers arrived moments later and saw a woman attempting to put a fire out with her foam-like clog-style shoe, the report said.
The woman allegedly told officers that she had a lit cigarette and a plastic bag in her hand caught fire.
Officers found a small pile of smoldering items, including a Bible, which had “Placed by the Gideons” imprinted on the front cover.
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The edges and cover of the Bible were burned and the book was falling apart, according to the incident report.
Other items in the small pile included a sales flyer, a parcel of mail and remnants of a plastic bag.
At the back of the burned house, officers reportedly found some pages from the Bible.
At the foundation of the house, officers claimed they found a purple lighter which wasn’t there when they inspected the house that morning, the report states.
The vacant home had burned the night before. Russell is not charged with setting the home on fire, but with starting a fire on the property.
The cause of the fire that burned the house remains under investigation.
Earlier Thursday morning, the fire marshal collected some items from the burned house and sent them to the S.C. Law Enforcement Division for analysis.
If Russell is convicted, she faces up to 15 years in prison.
Contact the writer: mbrown@timesanddemocrat.com or 803-533-5545. Follow on Twitter: @MRBrownTandD

