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PROVO — A man embroiled in a federal child pornography case is now suspected of setting a series of fires in Provo during 2014.
Provo police believe Stevan Andrew Johnson, 25, is responsible for intentionally lighting multiple fires throughout the city, said Provo Police Sgt. Brian Taylor.
Johnson, of Provo, has not been formally charged with the arsons. He is currently in the Davis County Jail on a hold from the U.S. Marshals Service. Johnson was federally indicted in April on a child pornography charge.
Evidence connected to the arson cases surfaced while authorities were investigating a child pornography possession case against Johnson, Taylor said. That case, filed by state prosecutors in November, was dismissed after Johnson was federally indicted.
Taylor said police aren't talking publicly about the evidence they believe links Johnson to multiple arsons.
"Investigators are looking at the entire recent pattern of arsons in Provo and carefully examining each of them, comparing it to the evidence and seeing what they can link to this man," he said.
A series of fires in the spring and summer of 2014, most of them in abandoned buildings, were deemed suspicious by Provo police. Three abandoned duplexes near 300 West and 4800 North were destroyed on April 11, 2014. Another empty duplex at 15 W. 4800 North burned to the ground on April 19 of that year.
"We know the arsons caused a great deal of fear in the community, and we are hopeful this investigation will give a degree of comfort and closure to that case and result in a prosecution," Taylor said. "But we’re doing a careful ongoing investigation to make sure that we got it right."
