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Last Updated: Thursday, September 02, 2010

Former Firefighter Faces Cold Case Arson Murder Charges

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A former volunteer firefighter has been identified by police as a suspect in an arson fire nearly 24 years ago that killed an East Windsor, Connecticut couple. According to the Hartford Courant, Peter Waraksa, 48, should be charged today with two counts of arson murder in connection with a residential fire that occurred on October 7, 1986.

Orie "Harold" Weeks, 59, and his wife Assunta Weeks, 57, were found dead following a fire in their home. At the time of the fire, Waraksa was a member of the Warehouse Point Volunteer Fire Department, according to WFSB-TV.

Waraksa, who is also a former member of the East Windsor Emergency Management Agency, is already in prison, according to NBC Connecticut. In 2007, he was sentenced to five years in prison for sexually assaulting five boys.

According to the Courant, three of the children involved are brothers that Waraksa baby-sat. The assaults allegedly occurred in the summer of 2005. At the time of his sentencing, he was also sentenced to 20 years of probation, required to register as a sex offender for 10 years and undergo sex offender treatment.

If convicted on the arson murder charges, he faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Author:Barbara Brooks - Fire Department Network News

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this article is about my grandparents, which i never had the chance to meet. for 21 years that i have been alive i have always been told it was a cigarette that caused my grandparents to perish in that house. when i found out yesterday that their house was set by a firefighter is just a punch in the face, being that i am volunteer firefighter in alabama. there is absolutely no excuse for this. and what ever sentence he gets will be to good for him. ~ Eugene Smith

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