Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Son, 40, accused of setting home on fire

The Brookridge man, who shares the mobile home with his mother and a friend, is charged with arson.

By Times Staff Writer
Published December 8, 2005

BROOKSVILLE - Audrey Hamel, 65, thought everything was okay Tuesday afternoon when she left her 40-year-old son at home and headed off to play bingo. About 7:45 p.m., she learned that the mobile home she shares with her son and a friend at 14318 Adair Ave. in Brookridge was in flames.

The Hernando County Sheriff's Office has charged her son, Craig S. Goyette, with arson.

About 6:35 p.m., Hamel got a call from a neighbor saying that Goyette had just broken into one of the bedrooms in the white, double-wide mobile home.

She told the neighbor to take away her son's car keys because she was worried her son was drinking, according to a Sheriff's Office report.

Fifteen minutes later, the house was in flames.

Goyette admitted to Deputy Gary T. Mason that he had started the fire, according to Mason's report. Mason said he overheard Goyette telling a paramedic that he had doused the house with gasoline because he was angry and that he wanted to die.

Goyette is being held in the Hernando County jail in lieu of $3,000 bail.

Rick Day, fire marshal for Hernando County Fire Rescue, said the fire was set at the front and back doors of the mobile home. It caused about $10,000 in damage. But Day said the flames had mostly affected the front and back doors and that the inside will be livable once it is cleaned up.

[Last modified December 8, 2005, 00:50:19]