Media Release: Separate Marion County arson investigations by W.Va. State Fire Marshals lead to woman’s arrest, additional charges against recent suspect

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The West Virginia State Fire Marshal’s Office has arrested a woman for setting fire to her boyfriend’s home earlier this month, and announced new charges against a Marion County man in connection with a separate December 2017 residential fire.

Kurstin Marie Beck, 21 of Fairmont was arrested on Sept. 28 and charged with first-degree arson. Beck admitted to an investigator that she lit a fire with charcoal lighter fluid inside a trailer on Mountain Side Drive in Fairmont on Sept. 21. After Beck lit the fire she ran from the trailer with her 6-month-old daughter.

 

Beck is currently being housed at the North Central Regional Jail on a $20,000 bond.  Her arrest was made by WVSFMO investigator R.C. Ayersman.

 

Intimidation of a witness charges, meanwhile, resulted in the issuance of an arrest warrant for Christopher Carlton Metheny, 35.

 

Metheny, along with his ex-wife Brittany Marie Drake Metheny were previously arrested Sept. 18 for first-degree arson, burning insured property and fraudulent claims again an insurance company.

 

Investigators believe the Methenys set a fire that severely damaged their home on May Street in Fairmont on Dec. 12, 2017. The two were arrested in Kingwood, Preston County, on Sept. 18. 

 

The new charges were filed by Trooper D.W. Simmons out of Preston County. Christopher Metheny was arraigned and is currently out on bond. The arrest was made by WVSFMO investigator R.C. Ayersman.