Affidavit details FBI investigation of arson

A Mescalero couple is the subject of a federal investigation into a string of fires near Ruidoso, including June's devastating Salt Fire, which burned nearly 8,000 acres, according to a search warrant affidavit.

The New Mexican is not naming the couple because neither individual has been charged. A spokeswoman for the FBI did not return a message seeking more information on the investigation.

The Ruidoso area has been badly damaged by both the Salt Fire and the 17,000-acre South Fork Fire, which officials have said was caused by a lightning strike in June.

Ruidoso Mayor Lynn Crawford said rampant speculation about the causes of the fires has been a source of pain in the community as it continues to reel from near-constant flooding in the wake of the fires, which ravaged the area and left two dead.

Earlier this month, agents seized a pair of Vans shoes from the woman, which investigators said matched shoeprints found near the origins of several of the fires, according to a search warrant signed by a federal judge July 11.

The search warrant affidavit chronicles an investigation into the couple and details how a Mescalero Conservation Department officer linked the couple's dark-colored Jeep, as well as the woman's shoe prints, to various fires that occurred within a 25 square-mile area.

The officer first interviewed the Mescalero man after he had reported a fire May 3, the affidavit states. The man told the conservation officer he was a wildland firefighter; he and his girlfriend had gone to the site in hopes of dousing it after he called in to report the blaze, investigators wrote.

"Prior to being asked, [the man] stated that he did not start the fire," the affidavit says.

On May 7, the officer saw a "dark-colored, newer model Jeep" driving away from a different fire that had started in the area, and he photographed a footprint he found in dirt near the fire, according to the affidavit. On May 20, residents who lived near another fire told the officer they had seen a Jeep "leaving the area of the fire prior to any law enforcement arriving on scene," the special agent wrote.

Investigators noted four different fire starts between June 16 and June 17. One was the destructive Salt Fire.

Firefighters responded to a fire in the Carrizo Trails area of the Mescalero Apache Reservation on the evening of June 16 and extinguished the fire. The next morning, another fire started less than a half-mile away, and investigators found a shoe print on top of tire tracks from the fire department vehicles - suggesting the print was made after firefighters had been in the area the previous evening.

Bureau of Indian Affairs officials pulled over the man and woman on a road "leading away from the Salt Fire" less than an hour after it was reported, the affidavit states.

The man and woman both went voluntarily to be interviewed by investigators June 25, the affidavit states. Both handed over their cellphones to be searched. It isn't clear whether investigators found potential evidence on the phones.

The special agent in charge of the case wrote in the affidavit the tires on the woman's jeep matched tire marks found at a June 17 fire, and her shoes appeared to match the shoe prints found at multiple fires.

Crawford said monsoon flooding continues to wreak havoc in the burn scar of both fires.

Earlier this month, heavy rains flooded the Ruidoso Downs Race Track and Casino, causing all horseraces for the rest of the season to be moved to Albuquerque, the facility's manager said in a statement.

Crawford said he has encouraged agencies investigating the fires to hold a town hall where they can present the evidence of their determination to residents.

"A lot of people are looking for somebody to blame," Crawford said. "If [the South Fork Fire] was an act of nature, let's see the evidence of that, so that the healing can begin."