VIRGINIA BEACH — A 50-year-old woman is accused of setting fire to a neighbor’s home in the Wolfsnare area of Virginia Beach, according to court documents.
A homeowner called 911 on March 2 after she discovered a fire burning near the sliding glass door of her home in the 2200 block of Sedgewick Drive around 6:20 a.m., according to a search warrant filed in Virginia Beach Circuit Court.
She told the Virginia Beach Fire Department she was getting ready in an upstairs bedroom when she saw smoke outside of her window. When she looked out the window, she saw her neighbor, Jacques Lanae Wesley, walking from behind her property toward her own nearby home, court documents state.
The homeowner discovered a “small fire” burning against her sliding glass door. Her boyfriend confronted Wesley while the woman called authorities, according to court documents.
During their investigation, the VBFD found two small bowls filled with liquid near the homeowner’s front door. The agency’s accelerant-sniffing dog, Sadie, searched the property and identified those two bowls as having ignitable liquids in them, the search warrant states.
Sadie also led the VBFD to Wesley’s nearby home, where the woman was standing outside. The dog also led the VBFD to the back of the homeowner’s property where she alerted her handler that there were ignitable liquids present at the homeowner’s sliding glass door, according to court documents.
Wesley was arrested on March 3 and charged with disturbing the peace, trespassing after being forbidden, two counts of common law trespassing and arson of an occupied dwelling.
She is currently in custody at the Virginia Beach Correctional Center and is scheduled to appear in the city’s General District Court on May 3.
