SMITH COUNTY, Texas — On January 1, 2010, members of Little Hope Baptist Church in Canton gathered on the lawn in front of the building, as the distinctive smell of smoke and water carried throughout the winter air.
"The yard was full," Little Hope member JoNell Wilkerson said. "Most were crying, naturally, to see our church burning."
As the members watched the building burn, a sense of hopelessness spread through the crowd like the fire spreading through the building.
"We were fearful that we would lost the entire building," Wilkerson remembered.
That same day, Faith Church in Athens was also set on fire.
Less than two weeks later, on January 12, two more churches would erupt in flames: Lake Athens Baptist Church and Grace Community Church.
“I was horrified actually, and concerned that it would continue. I think it's beyond just an anger issue when people start cars in worship space," Athens resident Phyllis Kidwell remembered. "And I understand there were also burglaries and maybe they were just trying to hide their evidence, but it's very frightening to the whole community, no religious community.”
However, it did not stop there.
Between January 16 and February 8, 2010, six more fires would burn at six more churches:
- January 16 - Tyland Baptist Church in Tyler
- January 17 - First Church of Christ, Scientist in Tyler
- January 20 - Prairie Creek Fellowship in Lindale
- February 4 - Russell Memorial United Methodist Church in Wills Point
- February 8 - Dover Baptist Church in Lindale
- February 8 - Clear Spring Missionary Baptist Church
“I don’t want our East Texas community to be in fear," a Lindale resident told CBS19 in 2010. "We’re going to catch and stop this.”
The fires spawned the largest criminal investigation in East Texas history, involving dozens of local law enforcement investigators, more than 70 ATF agents, 50 DPS investigators and 30 Texas Rangers.
In only the third time in ATF's history, multiple response teams investigated one crime. The other two times was in the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing and the attack on the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.
Among them was ATF investigator Larry Smith, who would later become sheriff of Smith County.
“ATF did not get involved in this investigation on January, the first, they had two fires that day they were handled locally,” Smith remembered.
When ATF did get involved in the investigation, Smith says they initially ruled out arson at the Little Hope fire.
“It was determined that the Christmas tree started the fire," Smith said.
However, as the investigation continued, the fire became more suspicious.
"But over here in the middle of the room, you have a wooden piano this totally has no wood left on whatsoever," Smith explained. "And things in between are not as damaged as they all were here That's a clue that that didn't the fire didn't originate here.”
Another major break in the case came after the fire at the Lake Athens Baptist Church when authorities were investigating two sets of suspicious footprints near the scene of the church.
Authorities discovered one of the tracks were made by a size-13 work boot by Redwing, which had been discontinued at the time of the fire.
“Never until this investigation did I get a footprint and a some shoe footwear that was a 100% match,” Smith remembred. “But the second one, the shoe print, the tennis shoe print was identified as a Sketcher. But I believe that particularly Sketcher tread print could have been any of eight.”
It was after the Tyland Baptist Church fire on Jan. 18 that the investigation took off, as fear spread through the religious community. At that point, Smith activated the ATF National Response Team. This included fire protection engineers, electrical engineers, a certified fire investigator and a certified explosives specialist.
Eventually, Jason Bourque, then-19, and Daniel McAllister, then-21, were arrested and charged with arson. Both were convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
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