TYLER, Texas — A Tyler woman accused of starting a fire that destroyed her cousin's home and killed a dog in April has been charged with arson and cruelty to an animal, arrest documents show.
Ruthie Cassettari, 51, was arrested on June 7 on arson and animal cruelty charges, and she remains in the Smith County Jail on bonds totaling $250,000, jail records show.
According to an arrest affidavit, Cassettari's arrest stems from a house fire on Kevin Drive in Tyler on April 26 that resulted in the death of a dog, total loss of the residence and total losses of a vehicle and motorcycle in the carport area.
The resident of the home told a deputy fire marshal that he believed his cousin may have been involved in the setting the fire.
He told investigators about a ring camera that his neighbors have. That video showed a vehicle in front of the Kevin Drive house a short time before the fire was seen and reported. The resident said the vehicle matched the one owned and driven by Cassettari, the affidavit read.
A 911 caller also said he saw a vehicle driven by a woman in the area near the house. The deputy fire marshal drove to Cassettari's apartment complex to find a vehicle that matched the caller's description. After running the license plate, the marshal determined it was registered to Cassettari, according to the document.
In a phone interview before she was asked questions, Cassettari told the investigator she and another person had been at an Air Force base in Shreveport all week and she was not in Tyler before or during the time of the fire, the affidavit stated.
Because her statements were inconsistent with the video and what the witness said, the investigator obtained Cassettari's phone records through a search warrant. Those records showed her phone was in the area of the Kevin Drive house before the fire was reported, the document read.
In an interview on June 6, she told the investigator she left Shreveport on April 26 and drove to the Tyler home, where she stuffed newspaper under a door and soaked the paper with lighter fluid, according to the affidavit.
She then lit the newspaper with a match, and afterward Cassettari returned to the Shreveport military base, the document explained.
The affidavit does not mention why Cassettari set the house on fire.