Transcripts of 911 calls reporting a fire at a house owned by a man suspected in a double killing reveal callers desperate for help, one caller fearing multiple fires were being set.
ASHEVILLE – Transcripts of 911 calls reporting a fire at a house owned by a man suspected in a double killing reveal callers desperate for help, one caller fearing multiple fires were being set.
A caller told emergency dispatchers that someone was "setting fires to everything up here on the mountain. Hurry!"
Buncombe County Sheriff Van Duncan released transcripts Wednesday of seven 911 calls placed shortly after 2 a.m. March 20 alerting authorities to a fire at an unoccupied doublewide mobile home within about 50 yards of suspect Robert Jason Owens' primary residence on Owens Cove Road.
The documents are written records of the voice recordings on the 911 tapes, with redacted names and other information such as their location that might reveal their identities.
Duncan declined to release the audio recordings, saying the voices on the tapes, even with redacted names, may be identifiable and may endanger the callers.
Arson investigators have ruled the blaze suspicious but have not said how they believe the fire was set. Owens, charged in the killings of Joseph "J.T." Codd and his pregnant wife, Cristie Codd, was taken into custody on March 16, four days before the fire.
A key question that remains unanswered is how the fire may fit in the murder investigation, and a possible motive for the person who set it. According to search warrants, the Codds' remains were found at Owens' property, part of them inside a woodstove.
Duncan again Wednesday declined to say if the woodstove was inside the burned mobile home or whether evidence was possibly destroyed in the fire.
Duncan was asked if he thought the arsonist could be an Owens ally who was trying to destroy evidence. Or was the fire the act of someone who saw a chance, with Owens in jail, to strike a blow at him by burning his property?
"We think it could be either," Duncan replied. "Our interviews are continuing."
He said the 911 calls were helpful in the law enforcement investigation of the fire.
"We have followed up on what we have in these recordings," Duncan said. "We did feel like the fire was set due to the 911 calls. We're still gathering information and putting it all together right now."
Robert Jason Owens (Photo: Special to the Citizen-Times)
He said the caller who suspected more than one fire was set was mistaken.
"I think the caller was calling from a place where they may have misinterpreted things," Duncan said. "There was one structure that was burned. That was it."
Investigators have not released a possible motive in the murder case. Owens, a contractor, had done some work on the Codds' home, the sheriff said.
Owens also was a suspect in the well-known Zebb Quinn missing person case in Asheville. Quinn was 18 when he vanished in 2000. Owens was the last person to speak with him.
Excerpts from 911 calls
Parts of calls placed to Buncombe emergency dispatchers from residents near a house fire on Owens Cove Road on March 20.
Call 1
Caller: "Ma'am, it's on the Hookers Gap Road on the Leicester side. Where a murder was. People is up Owens Cove Road setting fires."
Dispatcher: "OK, where at on Owens Cove?"
Caller: "You can see it. It's a dead end. It's where the murder site was recently."
Dispatcher: "OK, are they setting fires to the house?"
Caller: "Yes, yes. They got it. They set fire to more than one structure."
Dispatcher: "OK, we're getting them on the way, OK?"
Caller: "OK, hurry."
Call 2
Caller: "I need fire and law enforcement. I've done called for fire. I need law enforcement on Owens Cove Road, off of Hookers Gap Road, on the Leicester side."
Dispatcher: "OK, why do you need law enforcement for?"
Caller: "Somebody is setting fires to everything up here on this mountain. Hurry! They're setting fires."
Call 3
Dispatcher: "We've got the fire department on the way. Is there anyone inside the residence?"
Caller: "I have no idea. I think it was empty. That was Jason Owens' house."
