Arson: Palmerston North Police Department

The intent to perform an arson represent the means of dealing with or expressing a deeper emotional conflict (Rider, 1980). Arson is defined as the willful intent or malicious burning of property. The use of fire shows a premeditated planning to kill, seriously injury, or obliterate an intended target that has causes the individual pain, bring excitement or a mean to an end. The victims of these cases can be an individual person, a group, items, property or a symbol entity. The motives of arson are symptoms of a highly complex behavioral problems that deals with revenge, financial gains, excitement, concealment etc (Rider, 1980). Depending on the method of committing arson, it can reveal an offender’s skills level and any precautionary actions

This could be said in the case Brent Garner from New Zealand in 1994. He was a fraud detective from the Palmerston North Police department that started receiving death threats from an Satanist maniac. The police department put Brent and his family on protective custody as they attempted to search for suspects. The letters never had any prints and were written in a stencil like fashion. To protect his family, Brent sent his family away while he stayed behind to assist the police. The only protective measures Brent received during this time was his guard dog Max, an emergency button necklace, and a car detail that drives by his house every so often. One night, Brent was attacked in his bed by the Satanist. He was hog-tied bound and gagged with the final letter inside at zipped locked bag found in his mouth. The Satanist proceeded to slice Brent’s back open 7 to 8 times with a razor. Afterward, the Satanist poured petrol on Brent’s body and began pouring petrol around the house. During this time, Brent managed to hop to the window which was located above his bed and jumped out. He managed to crawl away from the house before his house bursts into flames. At the hospital, Brent told police that he believed the Satanist was stalking him for a while and got acquainted with Max through food. This was to explained why Max didn’t bark during the

Long story short, it was discovered that Brent planned this bizarre operation. Brent was unhappy being married to his wife and tied to a family life. Therefore, he started an affair with a co-worker and planned to run away with his lover. He was, however, ashamed of abandoning his obligations to his family and decided to find ways to take care of his family financial needs before ending the marriage. Brent thought the best way to achieve this was to burn down is house. However, being a fraud police officer, he needed to create a scheme. Therefore, he came up with the idea of the Satanist and began writing the threating letters to himself, which were sent to the police department. Once the investigation started, he set his plan in motion by doing many things. A couple of days before the arson, Brent was seen cutting his grass every day for three days straight. This was to conceal his purchases of buying a couple gallons of petrol that would be used for the house fire. The night of the arson, Brent decided to feed his dog food, in which he would later kill him to show the investigators that the Satanist was feeding his dog. However, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Afterward, he went into the kitchen to start the process of setting the fire. He used a Christmas lights timer connected to the socket and a toast. He places paper towels in the toast and allowed the