STALKER FIRE

Man ‘Obsessed’ With Woman Burns Down Her Workplace: Police

The man reportedly admitted to setting an entire office building ablaze, telling investigators he was “not concerned about whether people could be hurt.”

A 37-year-old Utah man is accused of burning down a Salt Lake City office building where a woman he was “obsessed” with worked. Alex Kentish Tuita was charged with three counts of aggravated arson and two counts of stalking after a three-alarm fire on June 13, The Salt Lake Tribune reports. Investigators say two women who worked in the building had complained of Tuita stalking them. One, who had reportedly banned him from her massage business in the building, said he had gone so far as to make a fake Instagram profile for her after bombarding her with “inappropriate” messages. Police say Tuita later “admitted to creating the profile because he was ‘obsessed’ with” the woman. At the time the fire was started, she was “in the process of seeking a civil stalking injunction against Tuita,” investigators said. A second woman from the same building had previously obtained an injunction against Tuita as well. Police say he admitted to investigators that he’d dumped gasoline on the building and set it alight, and that he was “not concerned about whether people could be hurt.” Both the office building and a single-family home were completely destroyed in the fire, and a family with young children narrowly escaped when the blaze spread to a neighboring duplex.