Six-year sentence for South Elgin arsonist

A South Elgin woman was sentenced to six years in prison Tuesday for setting a townhouse fire in 2004 to get revenge on her soon-to-be ex-boyfriend.

Cindy L. Bauer, 47, must serve 85 percent of her sentence for aggravated arson to the home in the 700 block of Hobart Drive in South Elgin.

She will receive credit for 301 days in jail and be released in about four years, three months.

In December 2006, it took a jury less than an hour to return a guilty verdict for Bauer.

Prosecutors argued she had fought with her then-boyfriend, Michael Schroeder, over money until she left the house and he went to bed.

She returned in the morning, poured lighter fluid along the stairs, lit three long fireplace matches and ran.

Schroeder awoke to the smell of smoke, but saw that the stairs were blocked. He threw on a pair of pants and jumped out a second-story window.

His roommate, James Gielow also jumped out the window, suffering a burn to his left forearm and palm.

Nearby landscapers rescued Gielow's black Labrador named Missy by hoisting a ladder to the second floor.

Bauer told police she had started the fire but thought it had gone out when she left the home.

She was charged with aggravated arson two days after the June 23 fire after an investigation by the South Elgin Police Department, the South Elgin Fire Department and the Kane County Fire Investigation Task Force.

Judge Timothy Sheldon issued the sentence.