Three arrested in Alabama church fires
Wed Mar 8, 2006 2:22 PM ET
By Peggy Gargis

TUSCALOOSA, Alabama (Reuters) - Authorities have arrested three college students in connection with a spate of fires that damaged or destroyed 10 Baptist churches in Alabama, investigators said on Wednesday.

Prosecutors identified the suspects as Ben Moseley and Russell Debusk, 19-year-old students at Birmingham-Southern College, and Matthew Lee Cloyd, 20, who transferred last year from Birmingham-Southern to attend the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Federal and state investigators planned to release details at an afternoon news conference.

The pastor at one of the destroyed churches said investigators notified him of the arrests on Wednesday.

"We are relieved. We were fearful while they were on the loose because we did not know their agenda," said Jim Parker, pastor of the Ashby Baptist Church in Brierfield, Alabama, which was burned to the ground. The rest


Students say church arsons meant as ‘a joke’
Third suspect arrested in torchings of nine Alabama places of worship
NBC News and news services
Updated: 4:32 p.m. ET March 8, 2006

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Three college students, including two aspiring actors known around campus as pranksters, were arrested Wednesday in a string of nine church fires across Alabama. Federal agents said the defendants claimed the first few fires were set as “a joke” and the others were started to throw investigators off the track. The rest