News

Arson cases in the Turtle Mountains

By Scott Wagar

06/03/2014

According to Steve Watson, sheriff of the Bottineau County Sheriff’s Department (BCSD), two acts of arson have taken place in the Turtle Mountain recently and he is asking for the assistance of the general public to solve the crimes.  

Little information about the arson crimes are being released at the moment by the BCSD because both are ongoing investigations.

However, Watson officially stated that two farmsteads in the Turtle Mountains have been burned to the ground through the act of an arson(s).

On the one farmstead, the house and a workshop were destroyed by fire.  

The other farmstead, which is owned by Jennette Nelson of Stanley and Lake Metigoshe, lost a house and pole barn.

Watson did state the two crimes scenes were near one another, and that no individuals were living on the farmsteads.  

The two acts of arson also took place at different times.

For Nelson, who lost her daughter, Ann Nicole Nelson, in the 9/11 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center in New York, was deeply taken back by the crimes that took place on her property.

“I stood looking down into a deep hole filled with the ashes of my farmhouse that someone had burned down in my absence. It wasn’t a fancy house, but it had character. It had a big apple tree and lilac bushes around it and a mountain ash tree stood not far from its deck. My grand-daughter had lived there for a spell during her college years and I had Ann’s childhood play furniture there and it was lost in the fire,” said Nelson, whose own daughter Ann had spent time at the farmstead.

“It needed fresh paint, but was fully furnished with some things I loved- a couple antique oak chairs, a rocking chair and some pieces of children’s furniture I had hoped to pass on to future great-grandchildren,” she continued

“I had hoped to go there to paint and write when our lake house was rocking with activity,”  Nelson added who writes poetry in her spare time.

In talking with a neighbor, Nelson stated that it appears that times have changed in the area since she first bought the property.

“When we (Jennette and her husband) stopped by to see one of our neighbors, he was holding a revolver. I don’t know if it was just a coincidence or if he lived in fear for his life. He told us another farmstead had been burned down south of us and several mailboxes had been crashed,” Nelson said.

“What a contrast to the young people I have met at Annie’s House, who had come to volunteer, sing songs and plant trees.”

With all that has taken place in Nelson’s life, and now with the lost of her farmstead due to arson, she feels desolation.

“I feel a great sense of emptiness, hopelessness and despair. I wonder if I will ever know what happened to my farmhouse and the adjacent barn these terrorists burned,” Nelson said.

“I feel I will never know who they are or why they did what they did. I feel that there will be no consequences and nothing will be learned and certainly no restitution will be made. It seems to be the way of our world today.”

Watson is asking that if any individuals know anything about the arson cases, or have seen any suspicious activity in the Turtle Mountains, or in and around the county, to contact the police station at 228-2740.