Arson suspect charged in three additional fires
A Naperville man already charged in connection with an arson investigation has been indicted by a Will County grand jury for his alleged role in three other fires in the city.
Richard J. Knapp, 49, of 3913 Highknob Circle, was arrested Sept. 7 in connection with two fires at a home under construction near his Tall Grass neighborhood, Naperville police said.
Further investigation linked him to three more fires that occurred in 2006 and 2007, authorities said. The grand jury indictments against Knapp were signed Thursday in all the cases.
Knapp already was facing arson charges in an Aug. 21, 2006, fire to a house being built next door to his own at 3911 Highknob Circle and criminal damage charges for a fire police say he started two months ago in a garbage can at a home at 3917 Highknob Circle.
Police say Knapp was caught when his neighbors at 3917 Highknob Circle saw him in front of their home around 5:30 a.m.
Cmdr. Dave Hoffman said Knapp was seen by the neighbors emptying the contents of their garbage cart on their property, then wheeling the cart over to his house where he filled it with his own garbage, poured some type of accelerant in the cart, lit the trash on fire and wheeled it back over to the neighbor's house.
Knapp is now facing five additional arson charges, including a residential arson count in connection with the garbage fire.
Police say Knapp set his first blaze on March 31, 2006, at a house under construction at 3131 Landore Drive in the Ashbury neighborhood.
Police say the next fire he is accused of starting was at the house being built next door in August 2006. He then followed that up a little more than a month later by setting a portable toilet on fire at the same construction site, police say.
On Jan. 11, 2007, police said, Knapp set fire to another house under construction in the Ashbury neighborhood at 2931 Willow Ridge Drive. That arson touched off a blaze at the house next door at 2935 Willow Ridge Drive, where a family escaped unharmed. He is charged with aggravated arson for the fire that damaged the family's house.
Hoffman said Knapp was a real estate broker. None of the houses that were under construction were being built by the same builder, he added.
Hoffman would not give any motive for the fires.