Follow up: Meth addict charged with burning down 3500 year old tree
9:52 pm - 03/01/2012
This is a follow up to this story from January, reporting the initial incident
A 26-year-old suspected methamphetamine user is facing charges she burned down a 3,500-year-old cypress tree in Central Florida, reportedly telling police she needed more light to see the drugs she was doing, the Orlando Sentinel tells us.
Sara Barnes is accused of malicious land burning and possession of meth for the predawn fire Jan. 16 at Big Tree Park that destroyed "The Senator," reportedly the fifth-oldest cypress in the world. Authorities say that while smoking meth with a friend inside the 118-foot-tall tree, Barnes told them she started a fire so she could see the drugs better.
Police were tipped the day after the fire. Investigators Tuesday confiscated Barnes' cellphone, laptop computer, methamphetamine, a glass pipe and other drug paraphernalia from her apartment near Winter Park.
State agriculture agents said Barnes took pictures of the fire and downloaded them to her phone and computer, the Sentinel writes. Witnesses told them she showed off the images, saying, "I can't believe I burned down a tree older than Jesus."
Barnes, who describes herself on Facebook as a model, posted bond today. A court date is pending.
A forestry agent initially suspected arson, but investigators later said they had ruled that out.
Seminole County plans to install a $30,000 fence to prevent someone from stealing the charred remains of The Senator or damaging nearby Lady Liberty, a cypress estimated to be 2,000 years old.
source: USA Today
A 26-year-old suspected methamphetamine user is facing charges she burned down a 3,500-year-old cypress tree in Central Florida, reportedly telling police she needed more light to see the drugs she was doing, the Orlando Sentinel tells us.
Sara Barnes is accused of malicious land burning and possession of meth for the predawn fire Jan. 16 at Big Tree Park that destroyed "The Senator," reportedly the fifth-oldest cypress in the world. Authorities say that while smoking meth with a friend inside the 118-foot-tall tree, Barnes told them she started a fire so she could see the drugs better.
Police were tipped the day after the fire. Investigators Tuesday confiscated Barnes' cellphone, laptop computer, methamphetamine, a glass pipe and other drug paraphernalia from her apartment near Winter Park.
State agriculture agents said Barnes took pictures of the fire and downloaded them to her phone and computer, the Sentinel writes. Witnesses told them she showed off the images, saying, "I can't believe I burned down a tree older than Jesus."
Barnes, who describes herself on Facebook as a model, posted bond today. A court date is pending.
A forestry agent initially suspected arson, but investigators later said they had ruled that out.
Seminole County plans to install a $30,000 fence to prevent someone from stealing the charred remains of The Senator or damaging nearby Lady Liberty, a cypress estimated to be 2,000 years old.
source: USA Today
Fucking hell. D:
Edited at 2012-03-02 03:26 pm (UTC)
fuck this pisses me off so much, i hope she either spends years in jail or gets her life completely ruined because of this. smh.
She needs to go to jail for a long time, if only because she's so thoughtless that she'll probably end up doing something else even more stupid and get somebody killed.
and we would go to hell. There's even signs in the parks.But this lady - I can't.
WELL.
I hope they lock this meth-addled douche up for a long time.
uh
Kinda really gross
Yeah, I'm pissed and sad that such a magnificent artifact of nature got destroyed in such a senseless and avoidable way (like, really pissed), and I'm glad that she's getting jail time to at least keep her from doing something equally as senseless in a way where people could be hurt or killed, but can we focus on the dumbassed thoughtlessness of her actions instead of the fact that she was doing meth?
Thanks.
I honestly don't know that that's true, considering some of the other stupid and senseless ways really old trees have died. I'm not arguing that what she did wasn't fucking stupid- it was, and extremely tragic as well -but I don't think that a person needs to necessarily be on drugs to dismiss the fact that lighting parts of a forest on fire, for any reason, is a stupid and reckless thing do to.
The meth definitely didn't help her judgment by a long shot, and she definitely needs to go to jail and go to rehab/serve years of community service, but I'm uncomfortable with some of the comments implying that she somehow deserves life less because she did an extremely stupid thing while high.
Just fucking wow.