Jacob McNamara
The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Division arrested Jacob Price McNamara, 21, on Friday, charging him with 11 counts of arson and three counts of reckless burning.
The arrest is the result of a several months long investigation into several suspicious fires occurring in the Soddy Daisy, Lakesite, and Ooltewah areas since October of 2019.
Detectives are still looking into other suspicious fires and additional charges against McNamara are possible.
The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office expresses gratitude to Soddy Daisy Police Department, Soddy Daisy Fire Department, Dallas Bay Volunteer Fire Department and Sequoyah Volunteer Fire Department for their assistance in this lengthy investigation.
McNamara is being held at the Hamilton County Jail.
According to the police report, the Sequoyah Volunteer Fire Department responded on a call of a dumpster fire. Deputy Chief Danny Cooke observed a small black car parked next to the flaming dumpster and recognized the occupant as McNamara.
Over the next few months, there were a series of dumpster and brush fires set around the area. On Jan. 10, Dallas Bay Fire Department responded to a dumpster fire call where the caller spoke of a dark sedan being present. On March 2 the Soddy Daisy fire department responded to another dumpster fire call where a man provided a video of a dark sedan.
On March 5, the Sequoyah Fire Department responded to another dumpster fire that was also near a construction site. A pair of witnesses were able to take pictures of a black sedan and identified the license plate number as 728AEO.
On March 12, the same couple observed the same vehicle parked next to several construction dumpsters in the same neighborhood. According to the police report, they observed a man walking from dumpster to dumpster, and the car had the same license plate.
Law enforcement researched the license plate and found it was registered to David and Jacob McNamara. On Jacob McNamara’s Facebook, the black Nissan is clearly visible.
When law enforcement spoke to residents of the Avery Lane location of the March 2 fire, they said they observed a black car parked next to the dumpster and a man beside it. When a woman asked the man what he was doing there, he drove away from the subdivision. At that point, she observed a small fire coming from the dumpster.
Because of the information available, a warrant was put out for Jacob McNamara for arson and reckless burning.