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SPRINGVILLE — Springville police and the Utah State Fire Marshal are investigating a trailer fire in October that claimed the life of a 53-year-old woman.
Maryanne Forsythe Finch was found dead inside a burning trailer in the backyard of a home at 68 E. 800 South, on Oct. 31. This week, Springville police confirmed that while the case is currently not being treated as a homicide, they are still trying to determine how the fire started.
In addition, detectives say there are several unusual circumstances surrounding the incident that initially raised suspicions.
According to police, the camp trailer was fully engulfed when the first emergency crews arrived. One witness reported hearing an explosion.
"While firefighters continued to battle the fire, police officers began making contact with occupants of the home which was dangerously near the very hot fire," according to a search warrant affidavit.
Police say they could see two people inside the house and tried getting their attention by knocking on the door and windows, but "the pair seemed reluctant to exit the residence, despite officers pleading with them that there was a large fire in the backyard of the residence."
According to the affidavit, Finch and the homeowner — who was the woman police could see through the window — had been involved in an "ongoing feud" and "many of these disputes had resulted in very violent physical attacks" by the homeowner against Finch.
Three other people inside the house told investigators the relationship between Finch and the homeowner had been volatile for months, the affidavit states, which police could confirm based on the number of times officers were called to the residence.
The homeowner was charged in July with aggravated assault for allegedly threatening Finch with a knife and smashing out the windows of her trailer, according to charging documents. During the last court hearing for that case, which was held before Finch's death, a judge ordered the homeowner to undergo a mental competency examination, court records state.
In another criminal case in April involving the two women, the homeowner "said on court record in reference to the trailer Maryanne resided in, 'It's my trailer and I can and will burn it down,'" the affidavit states.
On Thursday, however, Springville police say the cause of the fire had not been confirmed and there was not evidence pointing to Finch's death being the result of a homicide.
