SOLANO COUNTY, Calif. — The Markley Fire, part of the LNU Lightning Complex Fire last August is now being investigated as arson.
The Solano County Sheriff’s Office believes 29-year-old Victor Serriteno out of Vacaville started the fire while trying to cover up the death of 32-year-old Priscilla Castro of Vallejo.
Serriteno was already charged in her death shortly after her body was found in mid-September, but he’s now facing arson charges and two additional homicide charges for the deaths of Douglas Mai and Leon “James” Bone who died in their homes during the fire.
It’s been eight months since Chelsea Breaw lost everything in this fire off of Bucktown Lane.
"That’s been the hardest for me, that feeling of wanting to go home and not being able to," Breaw told ABC10 in August 2020.
She spent the last eight months thinking it was caused by lightning.
“Based on an extensive 8-month long investigation, we believe Serriteno deliberately set the Markley Fire in an attempt to conceal his crime,” Solano County Sheriff Tom Ferrara said.
Serriteno is accused of killing Castro. Vacaville Police say Castro drove to Vacaville for a date with Serriteno on Aug. 16 but was never seen again, until her burned body was recovered near Lake Berryessa in mid-September.
Investigators believe the fire was his way to cover it up.
"It’s really devastating and it’s really sad that somebody could think so little of the people in the area that they would put so many lives at risk and that in fact people did die due to this fire," Breaw said.
Tom Walter is a ranch manager who also lost everything in the fire on Pleasants Valley Road.
"I relive that night almost every night of what, once again, we’re human, what we could have done different?" Walter said. "What we could have done to protect this property?"
He said he felt sick to his stomach hearing this news.
"This should have never happened," he said.
Around eight the night the fire started, he texted one of his firefighter friends on the front lines to check-in before bed, just in case.
"Is there anything I need to worry about?" he said. "He goes 'No, everything is burning towards the north, towards this fire.'"
But both said they knew something didn’t quite add up the night of the fire as they were both forced to leave without any notice, in the middle of the night.
"Now that I look back at it, it was like the Napa side of the lake was on fire but not our side. And then just within a couple hours the fire was coming over our hill," Breaw said. “It seemed odd that we weren’t really getting anything like oh Lake Solano is on fire, it was like all of the sudden, our hill’s on fire."
"I’m like how can a fire move so quickly in a short amount of time?" Walter said. "And this explains it all.”
Serriteno is expected to be back in court to be arraigned on the additional charges on Friday, April 30 at 1:30 p.m.
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