Police are investigating house fires in two rural Cape Breton communities that appear to have been intentionally lit and may have been acts of vigilantism.
Police say two homes burned down after charges laid against locals
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Tom Ayers · CBC News
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Nova Scotia RCMP are asking for the public’s help as they investigate two house fires in Inverness County that they say may have been arson committed by vigilantes.
“I can’t get into the details, but there’s been a lot of social media chatter regarding an individual that was recently charged in our county and that has led us to believe that this might be blowback from those charges,” said Inverness RCMP Sgt. Lance Wood.
In June, Hubert Matthews and Harriet Battiste of West Bay Centre were charged with 50 counts each involving drug trafficking and weapons offences.
Matthews also faces two charges involving human trafficking.
Wood refused to connect the pair or those specific charges with the fires.
“I can’t confirm or deny that, but there has been social media chatter regarding the person who owns the residences in question,” he said.
“You know, threats and things of that sort.”
RCMP believe fires connected
The first fire occurred on July 2 in the 1200 block of Cenotaph Road in West Bay Centre. Wood said the house received significant damage.
A resident and an animal escaped without injuries.
Then, an abandoned home was destroyed by fire on July 14 in the 8300 block of Marble Mountain Road in Malagawatch, Wood said.
“Unfortunately, I can’t get into the details on why we believe they’re connected,” he said.
“Both matters are still under investigation by police, but some investigational steps have been taken that lead us to believe they are connected.”
‘I’ll let people connect the dots’
According to online records, Matthews owns residential properties in the 1200 block of Cenotaph Road and the 8300 block of Marble Mountain Road.
There have been no other news releases regarding charges involving residents in those areas, which are relatively unpopulated, but Wood still would not confirm a connection between Matthews, Battiste and the fires.
“I’ll let people connect the dots on that one,” he said.
After the charges were announced, the RCMP’s human trafficking unit appealed to the public for help in an investigation and said they believed there may be more victims.
Matthews recently got bail
Not long after that, both Matthews and Battiste were banned from visiting We’koqma’q First Nation, which is not far from Malagawatch or West Bay Centre.
Battiste was released after being arrested in June, but Matthews remained in custody until July 17, when he got bail on $7,000 in sureties.
Wood said anyone with information or evidence that might help police investigate the house fires is asked to call the Inverness RCMP or Crime Stoppers.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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Tom Ayers has been a reporter and editor for 40 years. He has spent the last 22 covering Cape Breton and Nova Scotia stories. You can reach him at tom.ayers@cbc.ca.
