Thursday, May 21, 2009 - 1:32 PM

The witness is a 35-year-old male Assistant Fire Chief that responded to the 911 call of a burning car located on Hurricane Road. The interview was conducted at the Yoknapatawpha Fire Department in the office of Assistant Fire Chief Marc Koerber and was recorded on a portable tape recorder with the witness’s knowledge and consent.

Detective Ted Armstrong
Detective Samantha Murphy
Marc Koerber

Detective Armstrong: Good morning, Assistant Chief Koerber. I'm Detective Armstrong and this is Detective Murphy. Thanks for letting us take up your valuable time. We need to ask you a few questions. Do you mind if we record our conversation?

Marc Koerber: Sure, no problem.

Detective Armstrong: Please state your name and address for the record.

Marc Koerber: My name is Marc Koerber and I live at 1279 Gertrude Ford Blvd. Oxford.

Detective Murphy: We spoke with your Fire Chief and understand that you were the Assistant Chief on duty the night of the car fire on Hurricane Road.

Marc Koerber: Yeah, I was the Incident Commander on that one. It was a nineteen eighty something Toyota that was fully involved when we arrived on the scene. There was nobody hurt in that one. Why is homicide interested?

Detective Murphy: It's possible this car could be linked to one of our investigations. What did you see when you arrived on the scene?

Marc Koerber: At about 4:30am we received a 911 report of a vehicle on fire on Hurricane Road. It's a back road without much traffic and by the time we got there the engine and passenger compartments were fully involved in fire. The first-due engine attacked the fire with a pre-connected hose line while the second-due engine searched the car for victims. We didn’t have any trouble killing the fire and the search turned up no victims.

Detective Armstrong: Was anyone in the area when you arrived?

Marc Koerber: Only the lady who reported the fire. A uniformed police officer arrived on scene and we turned the investigation over to him.

Detective Murphy: Did you do a fire cause determination on this incident?

Marc Koerber: I sure did. The state requires us to do a formal report on every fire incident.

Detective Murphy: So what did you find?

Marc Koerber: There's no doubt in mind it was arson all the way. I told that to the uniform officer on scene.

Detective Murphy: What makes you so sure it was arson?

Marc Koerber: The unusual burn patterns throughout the car and the high intensity of the fire definitely point to arson. I've been around the firehouse for a number of years and that's my opinion on this fire.

Detective Armstrong: We value your opinion and we appreciate you taking the time to speak with us today. If you can think of anything, just give us a call.

Marc Koerber: I sure will. If you ever have the time, come on back and we'll show you around the firehouse.

Interview ended: 2:05 PM